Reproduction, we are now told, is a fundamental right. That sounds good. We don’t want government preventing people from having children.
But under this theory, the right to reproduce has become more than just the right to have children. Women who don’t want their babies can abort–multiple times if they want, as many do. Couples–even if fertile–use IVF not just to have a baby, but the baby they want using techniques such on pre-implantation genetic diagnosis. Research is ongoing to permit more than two people to be biologically related to the child. Women who don’t want to carry their own babies can hire a surrogate uterus. In this regard, biological colonialism uses destitute women in countries like India and Pakistan as so many brood mares. Some say that reproductive cloning should be a right once it is “safe.” All of this moves having babies from (ideally) an act of selflessness and unconditional love to one focused almost wholly on the desires of parents and what they want from a baby.
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