Whole body gestational donation offers an alternative means of gestation for prospective parents who wish to have children but cannot, or prefer not to, gestate. It seems plausible that some people would be prepared to consider donating their whole bodies for gestational purposes just as some people donate parts of their bodies for organ donation. We already know that pregnancies can be successfully carried to term in brain-dead women. There is no obvious medical reason why initiating such pregnancies would not be possible. In this paper, I explore the ethics of whole-body gestational donation. I consider a number of potential counter-arguments, including the fact that such donations are not life-saving and that they may reify the female reproductive body. I suggest if we are happy to accept organ donation in general, the issues raised by whole-body gestational donation are differences of degree rather than substantive new concerns. In addition, I identify some intriguing possibilities, including the use of male bodies-perhaps thereby circumventing some potential feminist objections.
Keyphrases
- weight gain
- pregnancy outcomes
- pregnant women
- birth weight
- gestational age
- body mass index
- preterm infants
- preterm birth
- public health
- multiple sclerosis
- polycystic ovary syndrome
- skeletal muscle
- machine learning
- risk assessment
- adipose tissue
- deep learning
- insulin resistance
- global health
- resting state
- blood brain barrier
- kidney transplantation