Posthuman Body and Gattaca

Posthuman Bodies
The article by Squier talks about how reproduction has been converted at the boundaries of the posthuman. Discussing the effects of growing children in tubes, or implanting a fetus in a man. The three main things she focuses on are "the extrauterine fetus, the surrogate mother, and the pregnant man." Squier explains how our new technologies have a "crucial role" in our social and cultural boundaries. By using examples of this such as Frankenstein or Brave New World, Squier shows that during the late 18th through early 19th centuries people began to think of a woman's ability to reproduce more machine like.

Gattaca
In the movie Gattaca, Vincent a born "in-valid" with a genetic defect is denied his dream of being an astronaut. Because he has a defect, he is not allowed to hold certain jobs or have children with certain "valid" people. He meets Jerome, a "valid" who is crippled, and helps Vincent to take over his identity, so he can have a good life. It follows Vincent from getting surgery to be Jerome's height, to giving Vincent DNA and urine bags to prove he is a "valid. Vincent eventually gets ready to leave on a mission in space when the director is murdered and DNA of Vincent is found in the building. He then has to hide his true self even better, and trying to keep a relationship with Irene. In the end he is allowed to go to space after Anton his older brother and Vincent swim out as far as they can in the ocean like when they were children. Vincent wins again of course, proving that even with his defect he can still beat a "perfect" person. Jerome kills himself in the end after leaving enough samples of his DNA for Vincent allowing him to fully take over his life. The doctor in the end before Vincent is allowed on the shuttle knows he's an "in-valid" but doesn't alert the police because his own son is an "in-valid" and allows Vincent to live his dream and go into space.

Vocab
malthusian couple- believes that the population will increase without moral restraint or disasterextrauterine- outside the uterus (ex: test tube babies)
epistemologies - branch of philosophy concerned with nature and scope of knowledge ectogenesis- development outside the uterus (ex: infants requiring medical assistance to develop)

Questions
Are test tube babies and help for women to reproduce really that shocking?
Why is it seem to be bad to think of the body as a machine?Why is everything always relate to male power?! Would it not give women more power?
Are children born in test tubes, or helped to start their lives with technologies genetically altered? Or not fully human?