Heidegger, Reproductive Technology, & The Motherless Age

139 Pages·2017·3.39 MB·English

by  Dana S. Belu (auth.)

Heidegger, Reproductive
Technology, & The Motherless Age
DanaS.Belu
Heidegger,
Reproductive
Technology, &
The Motherless Age
DanaS.Belu
CaliforniaStateUniversityatDominguezHills
Carson,California,USA
ISBN978-3-319-50605-0 ISBN978-3-319-50606-7(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-50606-7
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For PietStefan
A
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Many thanks to friends, family and colleagues who patiently discussed
ideas,readchaptersandsharedfeedbackonthebook.Aprofoundthanks
toDanielGreenspanandAndrewFeenbergfortheirinvaluablecomments
and insights. Sandra Harding, Ann Garry, Julia Sushytska, Ed and Mary
Casey of Outside Philosophy have provided helpful notes on Chapter 5.
I thank The Center for Subjectivity Research in Copenhagen and The
FacultyLegacyFundatCaliforniaStateUniversity,andDominguezHills
fortheirsupportofmyproject.IalsothankLissaMcCullough,myeditor,
whosemeticulousapproachimprovedthismanuscript.Ioweabigthanks
tomyfriendandcolleague,JuttaSchamp,forherupliftingsupport.Very
special gratitude goes out to my mother for her love and for frequently
helpingwithchildcaresothatIcouldwrite.Finally,mydeepestgratitude
goestomyamazingson,PietStefan,whosebirthbroughtanewsenseof
energy andcommitmentto thisbook.
vii
C
ONTENTS
1 Introduction:Phenomenology,Feminism,
andReproductiveTechnology 1
2 TheParadox of Ge-stell 7
3 Enframingthe Womb:APhenomenological
Interpretation ofArtificialConceptionand
Surrogacyin the Motherless Age 23
4 Masteringthe Sparkof Life:Between
Aristotle&Heidegger onArtificialConception 61
5 Onthe Harnessingof Birthin the TechnologicalAge 77
6 ThePoiésis of Birth 103
Epilogue: Heidegger’s BlackNotebooks 121
Bibliography 125
Index 133
ix
CHAPTER1
Introduction: Phenomenology, Feminism,
and Reproductive Technology
Abstract This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book,
including brief summaries of each one of the chapters. It introduces key
terms such as enframing, reproductive enframing, phenomenology, fem-
inistphenomenologyandidentifiessomeofthecentralconcernsregarding
recentadvancesintoreproductive technology.
Keywords Phenomenology (cid:1) Feminist phenomenology (cid:1) Enframing (cid:1)
Heidegger(cid:1) ReproductiveTechnology
This book engages Martin Heidegger’s reflections on the technological
age as a way to make sense of the growing use of advanced reproductive
technologies(ARTs)inhumanconception,gestation,andbirth.Itapplies
Heidegger’s concept of the technological enframing, both critically and
appreciatively, to contemporary forms of human reproduction and
motherhood, broadly construed. The rising popularity of ARTs is trans-
forming in unprecedented ways the way women conceive, gestate, and
give birth as well as the cultural meanings traditionally associated with
motherhood, quickly deleting traditional conceptions and experiences of
motherhood. For instance, as a result of ARTs it is increasingly common
for children to have multiple mothers, evenin some rare cases up to four
mothers:thatis,twobiologicalmothers,onegestationalmother,andthe
social mother. Sexual reproduction and natural (or drug-free) births are
©TheAuthor(s)2017 1
D.S.Belu,Heidegger,ReproductiveTechnology,&TheMotherlessAge,
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-50606-7_1
2 HEIDEGGER,REPRODUCTIVETECHNOLOGY,&THEMOTHERLESSAGE
increasinglymarginalizedbyhigh-techalternatives.Surgicalbirthssuchas
cesarean sections and elective cesarean sections are becoming ever more
popular,evenfashionable.Thelatter,especially,bypassestheexperienceof
labor because it extracts the baby without any active input from the
mother. Butababydelivered isnota babyborn.
Asiswellknown,Heidegger’sworkontechnologybelongstohislater
philosophicalperiodandhisruminationsonthehistoryofbeing,whenhe
attempts to think the disclosure of being without explicit reference to
Dasein. In these later writings, as contrasted with his earlier uses of the
phenomenological method, Heidegger’s phenomenology historicizes the
understandingoftruthintheWestasamodeofrevealing(aletheia)thatis
presupposed, for example, by the ordinary conception of truth as corre-
spondence. Since Greek antiquity there have been several discrete modes
ofrevealing(aletheia),horizonsofmeaningorepochs,inscribedwithinan
underlying structure of truth as revealing/concealing (a-letheia).1 No
single historical epoch or thinker determines that, for instance, truth is
“based solely on what Plato thinks as idea and Aristotle thinks as to ti en
einai(thatwhichanyparticularthinghasalwaysbeen),orwhatmetaphy-
sics in its most varied interpretations thinks as essentia,”2 that is,
as objectivity for the moderns, as will to power for Nietzsche, and as
enframing for the age to come. The meaning of truth is a function of
the historical interplay between the revealing and concealing of different
normative horizonsthat noone controls.
Heidegger’s later phenomenology continues to underscore that for
something to show up it must show up as something. Phenomena are
recognizable only within a meaningful context and never when they are
viewed abstractly. In his post-World War II essays on technology, this
contextishistoricizedsothatanyparticularintentionalarcorrelationship
betweenhumanexistenceandtheworldisalwaysalreadycircumscribedby
a historicalframework suchasthe technological one. Thus,forany setof
normsorworldstoberevealed,othernormsorworldsmustbeconcealed.
These norms vary, but the revealing-concealing structure of being itself
within which these variable norms occur is invariable. The enframing is
one such variant “upon this overall invariant structure”3 of being and as
such itnecessarily conceals othervariants.
Heidegger’s analysis of the contemporary technological epoch pays
little attention to particular technologies and technical users, and much
more to the essence (Wesen) of the technical age and its manner of
concealment. He calls this essence das Ge-stell, a word that is most
1 INTRODUCTION:PHENOMENOLOGY,FEMINISM,ANDREPRODUCTIVE... 3
often translated as enframing. It can be thought to refer to a cultural
imprint (Gestalt) or to a “mode of revealing” that is specific to our age.
As we shall see in greater detail, the phenomenology of enframing
describes the relationship between a general attitude of imposition or
“challenging-forth,” as Heidegger writes in “The Question Concerning
Technology,”andwhatthisattitudediscloses:aworldsetupasaheapof
fungible raw materials, resources, or “standing-reserve” (Bestand) await-
ing optimization. The dominant value embodied by the attitude of chal-
lenging-forth is a constant “driving on to the maximum yield at the
minimum expense.”4 This drive places an uncritical value on the control
and optimization of resources as the final goal of all action. Enframing
does not necessarily reflect the use of technical devices; although devices
are often involved, human beings can treat each other and the world as
fungibleresources withoutthe useofany technicaldevicesat all.
ByemployingHeidegger’sconceptofenframinginthespecificcontext
ofreproductiveenframing,Iinterrogatethedisclosureofwomen’srepro-
ductive bodies as resources in the enframed stages, for the mother, of
medicalized conception, gestation, and birth. This feminist phenomenol-
ogycanbenefitwomenbyraisingawarenessabouttheenframingoftheir
reproductivebodies.Myfeministphenomenologyseekstoprovidespecific
social content to Heidegger’s socially anonymous phenomenology while
holding on to his fundamental insights. I hope to show that Heidegger’s
diagnosisoftechnicalcultureasenframedisreflectedinandconfirmedby
the currentstateof ARTs.
Thebookisintendedtobeaccessibletoawidevarietyofreaderswith
interests in feminist phenomenology and/or Heidegger’s philosophy.
Heidegger’s views on technology are brought into conversation with
such disparate thinkers as Aristotle, Hannah Arendt, Fernand Lamaze,
AdrienneRich,AndrewFeenberg,andSaraRuddick,amongothers.The
six chapters of the book can be read in continuity with each other, but
can also stand alone. Due to the thematic affinity between Chapters 3
and 4 and Chapters 5 and 6, respectively, the reader might find it most
profitabletoreadthemasapair,butthisisnot necessary.Tofacilitatea
nonlinearreading,eachchapteropenswithaformulationofHeidegger’s
conceptofenframingthatemphasizesdifferentaspectsofthetheoryand
its relationship to the specific content of each chapter. The arc of the
chapters assumes that the debate over reproductive technology is far
from settled. I take seriously the competing (and popular) views that
see technology as a tool in our hands with ambiguously good and evil