[extropy-chat] editorial: "Will Science Trump Politics in Resolving Abortion Debate?"

[Amara Graps]

Here's an editorial article that should interest many here.

Amara

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"Will Science Trump Politics in Resolving Abortion Debate?"

http://www.ifeminists.net/introduction/editorials/2005/0914.html
September 14, 2005
by Wendy McElroy

Intro:

Artificial wombs will be "reality" within 20 years, according to the 
London Times. Indeed, 20 years seems a conservative estimate given an 
earlier report in The Guardian, another UK newspaper, which predicted 
them for 2008.

Discussion of ectogenesis -- growing an embryo outside the mother's 
womb -- may sound wildly futuristic. But a few years ago, cloning and 
genetic modification seemed impossible. A few years before that, the 
idea of a 66-year-old woman giving birth was absurd; it happened last 
January. And only last week, British scientists received an official 
go-ahead to create human embryos from two mothers.

For better or worse, new reproductive technologies are redefining the 
ground rules of reproduction. (And, no, the force of law can not hold 
back scientific 'progress,' as authorities have discovered repeatedly 
since Galileo's day.)

(see the article for the rest)


-- 

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Amara Graps, PhD          email: amara at amara.com
Computational Physics     vita:  ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt
Multiplex Answers         URL:   http://www.amara.com/
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"I have an intense desire to return to the womb.  Anybody's."
        ---Woody Allen