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Call for Papers
The Ethics of Ectogenesis (artificial wombs)
Bioethics Special Issue: Publication 2020
Guest Editors: PhD Research Fellow Joona Räsänen (University of Oslo)
Associate Professor Anna Smajdor (University of Oslo)
CLOSING DATE FOR SUBMISSIONS: 1st MAY 2019
The editors of Bioethics are pleased to announce a special issue on the Ethics of Ectogenesis
(artificial wombs).
Recent developments in animal studies and human embryology have shown that the use of
artificial wombs for human beings might become reality in just a few decades. Partial
ectogenesis (removing the human fetus from the female body and gestating it in an artificial
womb) raises significant ethical issues, including for example questions about how abortion
rights might be impacted. Full ectogenesis, where the embryo is gestated in an artificial womb
from conception until birth might have even more severe ethical implications and might force
us to rethink human reproduction.
The aim of the special issue is to bring together best papers considering ethical issues
regarding either (or both): partial or full ectogenesis. Potential topics will include but are not
limited to:
Are there ethical differences between partial ectogenesis and full ectogenesis?
How might artificial wombs affect abortion rights?
Do artificial wombs move too far beyond the proper aims of medicine?
To what extent are artificial wombs merely another development in neonatal
intensive care? Or are artificial wombs conceptually different from current
methods of neonatal intensive care?
Should we give value to ‘natural gestation’ over artificial gestation and for what
reasons?
What kind of impact artificial wombs have on family, sexual rights and
reproductive freedom?
Would providing artificial wombs to transgendered women, gays or single parents
raise any special ethical issues?
Should access to artificial wombs be publicly funded in some, any or all cases?
Are there any good moral reasons to prohibit the use of artificial wombs?
What religious perspectives might be brought to bear on the ethics of artificial
wombs?
Who has parental rights and obligations towards the fetus gestated in an artificial
womb?
How would the development of artificial wombs affect women’s role in societies?
Should feminists welcome the artificial womb?
The editors welcome early discussions of brief proposals and/or abstracts by email to:
joona.rasanen@ifikk.uio.no
We would like to emphasize that the journal’s readers come from different disciplines, thus,
the authors are kindly to asked to submit articles that consider this important aspect. We hope
to receive papers from authors working on different disciplines such as philosophy, medical
humanities, sociology, theology and law. The main criteria for publication is that the papers
have significant bioethical merit on the topic. We encourage scholars from underrepresented
groups to submit. We also welcome papers from junior scholars (such as graduate students
and un-tenured faculty) as well as people working outside academia. All papers will be
subjected to rigorous peer review and the manuscripts will be reviewed by two outside
experts.
We are seeking papers of up to 6000 words although there is scope to exceed this limit on
request. For further submission requirements, format and referencing style, please refer to the
author guidelines on the Bioethics website:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/14678519/homepage/forauthors.html
Manuscripts should be submitted online at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/biot. Please
ensure that you select manuscript type ‘Special Issue’ and state that it is for the ethics of
ectogenesis special issue when prompted.