Supporters of women's health and reproductive rights have particularly pressing reasons for concern over human cloning and inheritable genetic modification (IGM). Human cloning and IGM could not be developed without unethical experimentation on women and children. These technologies would diminish women's control over their reproductive decisions, and subject them to pressures to produce the "perfect baby." Some advocates of cloning and IGM are attempting to appropriate the language of reproductive choice, blurring the critical difference between the right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy and the selection of a future child's genetic makeup.
Reproductive
Rights and the Politics of Abortion
To view and print a compilation of these topics, see
[ Perspectives
>> Advocates for Women and Reproductive
Choice >> Compilation ].
Related Articles
Presentation by CGS program director Tania Simoncelli at a session
on "The Genetic Revolution, Biotechnology and Women's Rights" at the
9th International Forum on Women's Rights and Development, hosted by
the Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID),
Guadalajara, Mexico, October 3-6, 2002.
Resources
>> CGS >> "The Genetic Revolution, Biotechnology and
Women's Rights"
"Women's Health and Reproductive Rights Leaders Call for Cloning
Ban," Genetic Crossroads (#19, April 18, 2001)
Newsletter
>> Archive >> Issue 19
Carl
Pope, "Between Scylla and Charybdis: Reproductive Freedom after
September 11," Keynote Address, Annual Convention, The National
Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, Washington, D.C.,
(November 9, 2001)
Resources
>> Items >> "Between Scylla and Charybdis"
Off-Site Links
Boston Women's Health Book Collective - The long-standing women's
health group famous for Our Bodies, Ourselves, is firmly
against the abuse of human genetic technologies.
http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/
- Cloning Statement signed by women's rights groups and
individuals (June 2001)
http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/clone3.htm - Marcy Darnovsky, "Human Germline Manipulation And Cloning As
Women's Issues" (November 20, 2000)
http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/clone2.htm - Lisa Handwerker, "The Implications of Human Reproductive
Cloning and Germ Line Alteration for Women and Women's Health: Ten
Mis-Conceptions" (March 2001)
http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/cloning.htm
GeneWatch - The newsletter of the Council for Responsible
Genetics, has published several special issues on women.
- Special Issue: Biotechnology and Reproduction (January
2001)
http://www.gene-watch.org/genewatch/volume14.html - Ruth Hubbard, "Childbearing in the Age of Biotechnology" (July
2001)
http://www.gene-watch.org/genewatch/articles/14-4childbearing.html - Ruth Hubbard, "Eugenics, Reproductive Technologies, and
'Choice'" (January 2001)
http://www.gene-watch.org/genewatch/articles/14-1choice.html - Rayna Rapp and Faye Ginsburg, "Standing at the Crossroads of
Genetic Testing: New Eugenics, Disability Consciousness, and
Women's Work" (January 2002)
http://www.gene-watch.org/genewatch/articles/15-1crossroads.html
Alejandra Rotania, "More Voices Against Human Cloning: Paradigms of
a New Feminism?," special section on Reproductive Technology,
Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights newsletter,
(No. 1, 2002)
http://www.klaever.nl/open_document.asp?id=137&site_id=157
Rajani Bhatia, "Taking a Stand Against Sex Selection," special
section on Coercive Contraception / Reproductive Technology in
Political Environments, Newsletter of Committee on Women,
Population, and the Environment (Spring 2002)
http://www.cwpe.org/pdf/pe9.pdf
Judith Levine, "What Genetic Modification Means for Women," World
Watch (July 2002)
Resources
>> Items >> "What Genetic Modification Means for
Women"
Rupsa
Mallik, "A Less Valued Life: Population Policy and Sex Selection in
India," Newsletter of Center for Health and Gender Equity
(October 2002)
http://www.genderhealth.org/pubs/MallikSexSelectionIndiaOct2002.pdf
The
Brazilian National Feminist Platform, a document based on the input
of thousands of activists in Brazil’s women’s movement, includes an
article opposing human reproductive cloning.
http://www.articulacaodemulheres.org.br/
More Information
Analysis:
Examine the social, cultural, and economic landscape
Policies:
Read about existing and potential regulations
Technologies:
Learn the basic science and consider arguments for and against
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