Abstract

This thesis examines the contemporary regulation of reproduction in advanced liberalism. In my analysis, "reproduction" is deconstructed to separate out its disparate elements, which include sex, conception, pregnancy and birth, legal paternity and maternity, and parenting. These processes are differently emphasised and regulated in different historical periods. I begin by discussing the way in which classical liberalism has managed reproductive processes by the separation of activities into the spheres of the natural and the social. The natural realm is believed to require a different form of regulation than the social; in early liberalism, most of the biological processes of reproduction were projected onto women and were believed to be adequately regulated by women's "natural" predisposition to mother. ;In contemporary discussions of reproduction, however, the sphere of the natural is increasingly contested. The clearest example of this dispute surrounds new reproductive technologies , and thus the central chapters of this dissertation explore feminist reactions to NRTs, including the liberal feminist mainstream response, which has been couched in the language of "choice" and generally endorses a regulated market approach to the burgeoning technologies, and the increasingly vocal "natural law" feminist response which is hostile to technological incursions into a sphere considered to be "naturally" women's. These debates thus involve a rethinking of our view of what is "natural" about conception, pregnancy, and birth. ;Finally, I examine the ways in which modes of regulation are determined by distinctions between "natural" and "social" processes. In looking at contemporary debates over reproductive rights , I illustrate how the designation of natural or social to a large extent determines how pregnancy is regulated. In general, advanced liberal states are more reluctant to regulate areas of life consigned to the "natural"; these areas are not usually subjected to liberal governance, which characterised by its emphasis on individual autonomy. The final task in this dissertation is to discuss how different processes of reproduction are regulated, and to explore how different modes of regulation, even apparently contradictory ones, coexist and even reinforce each other.