Reproducing the Family: A Philosophical Analysis of Intra-familial Access to Reproductive Potential

null, Daniela Cutas (Umeå University, University of Gothenburg)

The ALEF research group (Cluj-Napoca, Romania) announces an online talk by Daniela Cutaș (Lund University & Umeå University) entitled "Reproducing the Family: A Philosophical Analysis of Intra-familial Access to Reproductive Potential". The talk is part of the group's regular seminar and takes place on Friday, NOVEMBER 19, 18.00 EST (Eastern European Time). Please write to [email protected] or check our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/ALEF-100692348488914) if you want to participate. For more information about ALEF, as well as the schedule for the seminar in the 2021-2022 winter semester, please visit https://sites.google.com/view/alefgroupcluj.

Here is the abstract of the talk:

In recent decades, reproductive technologies have enabled novel uses of family members’ reproductive materials (such as gametes or uteri) or functions (such as pregnancy). These include conceiving children after the death of a parent at the initiative of their other parent; or after the death of one or both parents at the initiative of their grandparents; invasive fertility preservation measures undertaken on children at the request of their parents; children being born to women who had received uterus transplants from their own mothers; and children being born to their grandmothers, who had acted as altruistic surrogates for their daughters, the children’s intended mothers. In this project and this talk I look at what examples such as these have in common. I will explore questions such as whose interests are being actualised in intra-familial reproductive endeavours, why these interests are (or are not) legitimate in determining whether they should be supported, and what the normative significance of family ties is when making these determinations. In so doing, I will also be touching on the importance of genetic reproduction, the moral status of the family, and the tensions that may arise between the family and individual interests in this context.