Families on the frontier

Abstract

When considering questions of access, an argument for procreative autonomy is an interesting starting point. Its compelling logic, when applied to abortion debates, posits that women should be trusted to make abortion decisions outside of the scrutiny of criminal law. In the face of the term "autonomy", it has been noted that women's abortion decisions are frequently made in consultation and with a view to how their decisions will affect others, including the child they could bear. The same can be said of women who travel to the reproductive technological frontier. Their individual and complex embodied experiences and their decision-making processes need to be fully considered in future debates about regulation so that the meanings of these technologies are articulated by those whose lives bear their most profound marks. And in the speculation that these debates entail about ways in which current and future uses of reproductive technologies could change the constitution of populations and future social relations, mothers and their families - whichever form they take - must be given room to tell their stories.