Cyborgs in Our Society

In my undergraduate class "Technology and Society," we discussed many subjects relating to how technology and science affects how people relate to each other. Both in class lectures and our textbook the subject of "cyborgs" has been discussed. I think this is very interesting because the subject provokes such a wide, varying range of thoughts. What types of "cyborgs" are there today and how do they affect society? When one thinks of "cyborgs", things like prosthetics and metal pop up. There is "cyborgs" in the sense that people are made of metal, meaning a piece of them has a metal screw holding parts together or a rod in the back to straighten a spine. Then there's "cyborgs" in that people are connected to a piece of metal or a machine in their everyday lives, which is very prevalent these days. MT Tech students use computers and cell phones almost every day. The book mentions that even people who wear glasses or contact lenses are considered "cyborgs."

In thinking about "cyborgs" in this day and age, I realized a new type of "cyborg" process - making babies. In the past thirty years, advancements in the field of fertility have been making leaps and bounds. I think babies not conceived naturally could be perceived as "cyborgs." There are the test tube babies and in vitro babies, which are created by combining sperm and egg done in a medical lab. Then there is the process of men and women taking hormones and other medications to make them more fertile. And some people don't even use their own sperm or egg, but get them from a bank.

The main point of all this is so that people who are not fortunate enough to have babies by themselves are able to have a normal, healthy child. It's possible these ways to have babies could potentially affect the baby as it grows up and becomes part of society. I'm sure that the child and his/her parents wouldn't announce to the world how he/she was conceived, but the child will always know. Will this affect how he/she relates to other people? Will it affect his/her actions if he/she decides to have kids? Also, there's no guarantee that the baby will turn out normal or healthy. According to an article on CNN.com, "studies have shown that IVF (in vitro fertilization) babies have a higher risk of birth defects and low birth weight". This affects society in that the whole process might scare people away and project a false idea. Even though it's more practiced and more accepted now, as you can see from my image, in vitro used to be a scary and shameful idea. And I think the process of getting sperm or eggs from other people also affects society. You certainly can't buy a baby, but with all the sperm donors and egg donors and surrogate mothers, it's almost like you can. How has this changed society today?

I'm not saying that these fertility processes are bad (some people wouldn't be able to have kids without them), but I think it does have an affect on our society. I think they show how we can manipulate science into helping us make anything - even life.

Sources:

www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/parenting/07/25/ivf.anniversary/index.html