Ectogenesis, co-pregnancy and the politics of reproductive labour in the growing season: an interview with Helen Sedgwick

Abstract

This interview with the biophysicist and author Helen Sedgwick explores the politics of reproductive labour and co-pregnancy in her novel The Growing Season (2017). The conversation touches on the role of emerging reproductive technologies, like extra-uterine gestation or ectogenesis, and discusses how such technologies subvert heteronormal family structures by democratising the process of human reproduction. The interview explores the changing concept of motherhood and female autonomy through ectogestation, which allows both men and women to take part in the process of reproduction by dissociating it from the female body. The dialogue situates ectogenesis in the broader framework of gender studies to understand how such futuristic technologies may ensure gender equality with appropriate legislative policies. The discussion also highlights the problem associated with the commercialisation of such reproductive technologies to explore whether capitalist appropriation of reproduction through ectogestation may facilitate newer forms of control over the female body.