Reproductive Technologies: Does Choice Mean Freedom? :: essays research papers fc

Reproductive Technologies: Does Choice Mean Freedom? "One does not, it might be said, increase a person's freedom simply by increasing the sheer quantity of possibilities which he or she can choose from." n Richard Norman The issue of reproductive technologies in our society today raises an interesting question. Do they increase a women's freedom of choice or do they expand the power of men and science over women. Is freedom to choose what they can do with their bodies truly freedom. Freedom, as a core, is the absence of external impediment. In this sort of area can women truly be free of external impediment, also is this truly freedom of choice? "The range of physical possibilities from which a person can choose at a given moment has no direct relevance to freedom†¦Whether a person is free or not does not depend on the range of choice." (Haylek 1960, p.12f). This subject is so socially charged that a women could not possibly have true freedom of choice but a choice which is basically decided for her, whether it be by the limited choices made available to her by medical science or by the men which are directly involved with them in the decision. In order to truly understand this issue we must look at it's core, reproductive technology. This is a vast area to discuss because it ranges from artificial insemination to abortion to contraception to genetic engineering with many area in between. Artificial insemination is the introduction of sperm to an ovum artificially either inside or outside the female genital tract. Abortion is the "extermination of pregnancy before the fetus is capable of independent life." Birth control is a huge area of reproductive or contraceptive technology, in effect though all sub areas of this main area deal with the prevention of fertilization of the ovum or egg, also in some cases such as the condom it can stop the spread of disease. Genetic engineering is a new and extremely scary technology which hopes to enable the precise engineering of an unborn child. The previous examples are just some of the areas of reproductive technologies but they are sufficient to cover the basic scope of the issue. What is freedom. In the Webster's dictionary the definition is "The state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint". This is the core of freedom but to truly understand freedom one must define it with much more detail. two people who have concentrated their efforts on the subject of freedom are Norman and Haylek. Norman feels that freedom is equated to the absence of social pressure yet the possession of