인공자궁과 그 법적 함의 – 이 특수한 가정적 현실을 둘러싼 법적 접근을 위하여

Although new possible ways of giving birth such as the natural childbirth, assisted reproductive technology, and human cloning technology are being introduced nowadays, the premise which all of these have in common is the natural woman’s womb is a necessity. If giving birth without female uterus is possible, it would be considered as "the zenith of the reproductive revolution.” However, even if artificial womb technology can turn exclusive pain of childbirth for women into a matter of choice and provide same-sex or infertile couples the promising method to get their children, there still remain concerns and risks for the uncertainty. The purpose this article is to take a preemptive measure to the development of such new biotechnology in normative aspects. The idea of ectogenesis began from the imagination of a novelist or biologist in 1920s, but thanks to the technology advancement nowadays such as an artificial endometrial or artificial placenta, some experts are expecting artificial wombs in 10-20 years. Nevertheless, there exists a space for consensus to begin with. In today’s bioengineering including the artificial uterus research, moral limitations and authorities that overcome those limitations led to the conflicts within the principles of human dignity. For solutions, we need to examine how the artificial womb technology relates to the principles of human dignity and the meaning of the relation with justified standards. Also, accomplishment of artificial womb technology will eventually lead to the distinction from the existing abortion law. Current abortion standards will not be able to withstand the idea of survivability of fetus in artificial uterus. Increase in survivability of fetus from artificial uterus in case of abortion will challenge the fundamentals of abortion law and even if new standards allow abortion which does not directly lead to death, there requires discussions on initiatives for the protection of the neonate. Thus, the concept of artificial wombs necessitates an embryo or fetus to be considered independently from a pregnant mother. In case a mother and a third-person violates the rights of the unborn child by causing malfunctioning or power outage of artificial uterus in the process of formation, new regulations will be essential to properly handle the aftermaths. On the other side, ethical controversy arose from the issue such as surrogacy and biological parents will be easily alleviated through the legalized practice of artificial wombs. Nonetheless, there exist efforts to finalize the step. Relating to the principle of delivery, we need to redefine the concept of “mother” who uses artificial wombs, rather than her own, to give births in order to assign a status of mother and reconsider how genetic parents should be recognized as biological parents. In order to utilize artificial wombs technology as benefits to mankind, it is critical to consistently review the issues mentioned above and discuss issues that had not yet introduced for the further progress.