Fault Lines of Generativity: An Analysis of Generative Futures in Infertility, Pregnancy Loss, and Abortion in Dialogue with Narrative Bioethics
The subproject on the ethics of reproductive medicine focuses on infertility, pregnancy loss, and abortion as modes of non-reproduction. It examines the extent to which these modes are narrated as forms of loss and renunciation with regard to a generative future and reflected upon within the horizon of the question of the good life over time. By focusing on subjective experiences of disrupted generativity, the project adds an important dimension to contemporary debates in the ethics of reproductive medicine and enables a more differentiated reflection on the concept of generativity itself.
In cases of biological, social, and illness-related infertility, questions arise concerning the loss of, or the renunciation of, an individual generative future—questions that can be answered in different ways. Pregnancy loss marks a rupture in the assumed teleological temporal structure of pregnancy and entails the loss of an anticipated future. Abortion, by contrast, is preceded by reflection on and a decision about the realization of a future with this particular child—a future that is ultimately renounced.
The subproject adopts a hermeneutic-narrative approach and, drawing on approaches from narrative bioethics, analyzes narratives of infertility, pregnancy loss, and abortion in literature, film, and television with regard to the significance of a generative future for a good life over time. It also examines ambivalences and counter-narratives within these representations. The theoretical and methodological recourse to narrative bioethics makes it possible to describe and conceptually articulate the diversity of experiences of loss and renunciation and to render them productive for ethical debate. Finally, the subproject also aims to provide a critical analysis of the potentials and limits of narrative approaches in medical ethics and bioethics, as well as to strengthen ethical inquiry within the field of the medical humanities.
The subproject is based at the Institute for the History of Medicine and Ethics in Medicine at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin.
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