ectogenesis

English

Etymology

From ecto- (“outside-”) +‎ -genesis. The modern biological sense was coined by British biologist J. B. S. Haldane in 1923 in the lecture that formed his 1924 book Daedalus; or, Science and the Future.

Noun

ectogenesis (uncountable)

1. The development of an organism in an artificial environment outside the body in which it naturally grows.
   • 1992, Helen B. Holmes, Laura Martha Purdy, Feminist Perspectives in Medical Ethics, Indiana University Press, →ISBN, page 181:

     If reproductive technology could offer some form of ectogenesis, would feminists regard it as a liberating reproductive option?

   • 2010, Christopher Kaczor, The Ethics of Abortion, Routledge, →ISBN:

     Complete ectogenesis is already excluded. Partial ectogenesis is the continued development of an already generated human being in an artificial womb after transfer from a maternal womb.

   • 2012, Irina Aristarkhova, Hospitality of the Matrix, Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 88:

     Ectogenesis is a genesis “outside” the maternal body. The “outside” can be artificial (machine), which I address in this chapter, or another bodily environment (man or animal), which I will address in the next chapter.

Related terms

• ectogenetic

Further reading

• ectogenesis on Wikipedia.Wikipedia