2) Women, the bearers of children, have the ultimate authority on decisions regarding childbirth and pregnancy. How has society's perception of the various means of contraception, such as those portrayed in Brave New World, morphed over time since the ethical implications of such methods have been of increasing concern?
The contraceptive movement was sparked by Thomas Malthus' An Essay on the Principle of Population, written in 1798, which asserted that the world's population grows in a geometric fashion, while the earth's capacity to produce food for these people is arithmetic. He posited that such rapid, unsustainable population growth would lead to eventual famines, epidemics, and other natural checks to control population size ("Birth Control Clinics;" "Fertility Control"). At that time there was no reliable way to regulate reproduction, however, so all women who conceived children, even rape victims, incest victims, prostitutes, etc., were forced to bear these often unwanted pregnancies. Contraception methods were considered morally abhorrent, so those who chose to utilize them were considered immoral ("Birth Control Clinics").
Margaret Sanger emerged as one of the first pregnancy prevention advocates, when in 1914 she published The Woman Rebel, but was subsequently arrested in violation of the Comstock Law, which was passed in 1873 and made illegal the sending of "obscene materials," including birth control pills and abortion information and equipment, through the mail. After fleeing to Europe, Sanger returned to America to establish the first birth control clinic in Brooklyn, New York, in 1916, which offered birth control information, counseling, and devices. Sanger's ideas snowballed and in 1939 the American Birth Control Federation was formed, which was later termed the Planned Parenthood Federation, after which point family planning and birth control began to be generally accepted as moral behavior ("Birth Control Clinics").
While Sanger spearheaded the birth control movement in America, Marie Stopes was on the forefront of the movement in Europe. She wrote the famous polemic Married Love in 1918 after having met Sanger in England, but their vastly different philosophies and strategies became a cause for conflict. Stopes opened the first English birth control clinic in 1921, paving the way for increased acceptance of contraception in the future.
The depiction of reproduction and birth control methods in Huxley's Brave New World, written shortly afterwards in 1932, was most likely influenced by Sanger and Stopes' ideas. Even during this time when birth control and contraceptives were highly controversial, Huxley chose to include them in his novel with a surprising nonchalance, as the characters view such methods as everyday concepts, engrained in them to be secondhand nature.
"History shows that when contraception is restricted, abortion rates increase, and when abortion and contraception are both restricted, infanticide rates increase." Therefore, the first advocates of birth control opposed abortion, viewing it as a preventable tragedy. Nonetheless, the movement received great opposition from the Roman Catholic Church, arguing its involvement in the theories of eugenics, social Darwinism, and neo-Malthusianism ("Fertility Control"). The Church remains the greatest adversary to the birth control movement to this day since the Catholic doctrine forbids the use of any form of contraception.
When the birth control movement had its start, it brought into question the power of man versus God; since man could now, in essence, "control" the reproductive process, God seemed no longer to be the divine power that cast perfect life upon the earth. Huxley exhibits this notion in Brave New World with his attitude toward contraceptives, as the "Pregnancy Substitutes" (meant to simulate hormones stimulated during actual pregnancy) and "Malthusian Belts" (containing contraceptives for the women's casual sexual encounters) act as barriers to the "viviparous" reproductive process, considered obscene and repulsive in the society within the context of Brave New World. Even the idea of family itself is a foreign concept in the novel, as characters (some "Bokanovskified") grow up with the masses, emphasizing "hypnopaedic" teachings to drill axiomatic, repetitive expressions into the developing minds of the children.
Birth control methods during Sanger and Stopes' time were merely physical barriers, however, and new reproductive technologies have emerged such as chemical and pharmaceutical preparations. These have extended include methods that promote pregnancy, rather than inhibit it, as well; for example, artificial insemination, surrogate pregnancy, and in vitro fertilization have become very common in today's society (Cohen). Such methods did not arise until the late twentieth centuries and sparked even greater debate regarding the birth control movement. The morality of contraception and birth control in general is still widely contested, and may continue to be far into the future based on the varying forms of ethical conduct inculcated by religious associations.
Huxley seemed to be ahead of his time in describing a highly mechanical form of the reproductive process; in today's society those who struggle to reproduce naturally are more and more frequently turning to these progressive forms to catalyze pregnancy, in which life may originate from a petri dish, rather than within the human body itself.
Margaret Sanger emerged as one of the first pregnancy prevention advocates, when in 1914 she published The Woman Rebel, but was subsequently arrested in violation of the Comstock Law, which was passed in 1873 and made illegal the sending of "obscene materials," including birth control pills and abortion information and equipment, through the mail. After fleeing to Europe, Sanger returned to America to establish the first birth control clinic in Brooklyn, New York, in 1916, which offered birth control information, counseling, and devices. Sanger's ideas snowballed and in 1939 the American Birth Control Federation was formed, which was later termed the Planned Parenthood Federation, after which point family planning and birth control began to be generally accepted as moral behavior ("Birth Control Clinics").
While Sanger spearheaded the birth control movement in America, Marie Stopes was on the forefront of the movement in Europe. She wrote the famous polemic Married Love in 1918 after having met Sanger in England, but their vastly different philosophies and strategies became a cause for conflict. Stopes opened the first English birth control clinic in 1921, paving the way for increased acceptance of contraception in the future.
The depiction of reproduction and birth control methods in Huxley's Brave New World, written shortly afterwards in 1932, was most likely influenced by Sanger and Stopes' ideas. Even during this time when birth control and contraceptives were highly controversial, Huxley chose to include them in his novel with a surprising nonchalance, as the characters view such methods as everyday concepts, engrained in them to be secondhand nature.
"History shows that when contraception is restricted, abortion rates increase, and when abortion and contraception are both restricted, infanticide rates increase." Therefore, the first advocates of birth control opposed abortion, viewing it as a preventable tragedy. Nonetheless, the movement received great opposition from the Roman Catholic Church, arguing its involvement in the theories of eugenics, social Darwinism, and neo-Malthusianism ("Fertility Control"). The Church remains the greatest adversary to the birth control movement to this day since the Catholic doctrine forbids the use of any form of contraception.
When the birth control movement had its start, it brought into question the power of man versus God; since man could now, in essence, "control" the reproductive process, God seemed no longer to be the divine power that cast perfect life upon the earth. Huxley exhibits this notion in Brave New World with his attitude toward contraceptives, as the "Pregnancy Substitutes" (meant to simulate hormones stimulated during actual pregnancy) and "Malthusian Belts" (containing contraceptives for the women's casual sexual encounters) act as barriers to the "viviparous" reproductive process, considered obscene and repulsive in the society within the context of Brave New World. Even the idea of family itself is a foreign concept in the novel, as characters (some "Bokanovskified") grow up with the masses, emphasizing "hypnopaedic" teachings to drill axiomatic, repetitive expressions into the developing minds of the children.
Birth control methods during Sanger and Stopes' time were merely physical barriers, however, and new reproductive technologies have emerged such as chemical and pharmaceutical preparations. These have extended include methods that promote pregnancy, rather than inhibit it, as well; for example, artificial insemination, surrogate pregnancy, and in vitro fertilization have become very common in today's society (Cohen). Such methods did not arise until the late twentieth centuries and sparked even greater debate regarding the birth control movement. The morality of contraception and birth control in general is still widely contested, and may continue to be far into the future based on the varying forms of ethical conduct inculcated by religious associations.
Huxley seemed to be ahead of his time in describing a highly mechanical form of the reproductive process; in today's society those who struggle to reproduce naturally are more and more frequently turning to these progressive forms to catalyze pregnancy, in which life may originate from a petri dish, rather than within the human body itself.