But What Will They Mean for Women?: Feminist Concerns abou tthe New Reproductive Technologies

Karen Andrews, a human rights activist, was with the Toronto Public Library.

Linda S. Williams is a doctoral candidate in sociology from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. But What Will They Mean For Women? is her paper highlighting some of the feminist concerns around the new reproductive technologies: in vitro fertilization, artificial insemination, surrogate motherhood, and sex selection. Her conclusion that these “Trojan Horse gifts to women” will, in the long run, not be in the best interests of women is as timely as it is frightening.

Williams contends that the general feminist response to these new technologies is negative and she urges the feminist community to attempt to take control of these new processes before the fragile autonomy that we all enjoy as human beings is irrevocably lost. What William’s paper does not genuinely challenge is that single-minded, short-sighted and often desperate desire to reproduce. Clearly, we must say “no” to those technologies that jeopardize women before men or the state force us to say “yes” to them.