Title: Understanding the Metaphysics of Pregnancy and its Implications

Abstract: Around the world, many countries have legislation in place which limits access to reproductive rights. Philosophically, ethically, legally and socially, people and institutions seemed to have implicitly accepted that a foetus and its gestational carrier are separate entities. Colloquially termed the ‘bun in the oven’ view, this is also known as the container model of pregnancy and has historical roots in medieval conceptions of pregnancy and maternal agency. It forms the foundation of many of our attitudes towards reproductive rights in the modern world. It is my belief, however, that the container model of pregnancy is mistaken. I intend to show the ways in which our metaphysical understandings of pregnancy are mistaken, and how an alternative metaphysical understanding of pregnancy, which takes into account the physiological truths of the pregnant experience, will have an impact on our conceptions of reproductive ethics.

In 2019, Elselijn Kinma wrote a paper entitled Were You a Part of Your Mother? in which she argues that foetuses and gestators are metaphysical parts of each other. This is known as the parthood model of pregnancy. I will argue that this metaphysical understanding of pregnancy is much more in line with biological truths about pregnancy, such as the symbiotic relationship present between foetuses and gestators, which seems harder to reconcile with the idea of metaphysical separation.  

My talk will explore these metaphysical models in depth, while recognising that this is not a binary conversation, and that other alternative metaphysical solutions may be viable. My goal, however, is to show how conversations on reproductive ethics change when we consider pregnancy from a parthood perspective, rather than mere containment. I shall discuss  the ethical literature on reproductive rights, particularly considering topics such as abortion and surrogacy, as well as reproductive technologies of the future, and show the extent to which the container model of pregnancy has permeated all sides of these debates.