In my work as a women's ministry leader, I find that the contact I want to have with younger women is limited because the typical women's leader isn't in her twenties. I usually find these twenty-something young achievers in the academic realm. Anyway, I've been developing seminars that will encourage and equip young women toward excellence and godliness in whatever they do, especially in their chosen vocation. But where I really want to continue making an impact is in the area of bioethics because this is where women will find, in hindsight, that this is where they were most vulnerable. Young women today are tempted by money to subject their body to the harms of scientific research, and for those women who want it all, reproductive technologies turn out to be the way for women to wait til later in life to have children. Nothing necessarily wrong with that except for the risks placed on the mother and her unborn child, and the ethical implications of outsourcing pregnancy. Where the future is going in medical ethics has a profound impact on the real lives of young women. Feminism will continue to develop leaders among young women who preach choice as the highest value, but evangelical bioethics can develop young women as leaders for human dignity by valuing every life.
1 comment:
I have two responses to your blog:
I agree that women should not expect medical science to help them get pregnant if they choose to delay pregnancy until later-in-life. Statistics tell us that Advanced Reproductive Technology (ART) is less effective as a woman ages. No woman should pin her hopes and dreams for motherhood on fertility treatments.
Having just published a book on late-in-life motherhood, I believe it is important for people to realize that while many women are choosing to wait to have children later in life--"many" does not equal "all."
Sometimes women face infertility in their 20s. Sometimes Mr. Right doesn't show up as early as expected. Sometimes divorce ends a marriage. Somtimes a woman is widowed. Sometimes a woman is surprised by a late-in-life pregnancy.
So, yes, there is choice--and sometimes--possibly more times than people realize--there is not.
Do you have any statistics on how many women are choosing to wait versus other reasons for late-in-life motherhood?
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