PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Elselijn Kingma
TI  - In defence of gestatelings: response to Colgrove
AID  - 10.1136/medethics-2020-106630
DP  - 2021 May 01
TA  - Journal of Medical Ethics
PG  - 355--356
VI  - 47
IP  - 5
4099  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/47/5/355.short
4100  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/47/5/355.full
SO  - J Med Ethics2021 May 01; 47
AB  - Ectogestation—that is, ‘artificial’ or extramammalian pregnancy—may soon be within technological reach. This confronts us with questions about the correct moral and legal attitude towards the subjects of this technology, which are called ‘gestatelings’. Colgrove argues that gestatelings are a kind of newborn, and consequently should have the same moral and legal protections as newborns. This paper responds that both claims are unsupported by his arguments, which equivocate on two understandings of the term ‘newborn’. Questions about the appropriate moral and legal status of gestatelings are therefore (once again, and correctly) left unanswered, but in the course of attempting to answer them, we are well advised to continue using the term gestateling.