ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces a temporary shift of emphasis. It looks at the relationship between male gender and the evolution and management of the new reproductive technologies. The social and political context of the new reproductive technologies is therefore both complex and simple. The desire for purchase or control over the pregnant body places the new reproductive technologies themselves in perspective. The chapter suggests that the new reproductive technologies may be understood as a response to the void men experience in terms of reproduction. It argues that this void can be seen as a product of the privileged status of the visual within western epistemology. The chapter considers the degree to which these modern technologies may be seen to fall within the critique of masculine (pro)creative desires that Shelley provides by assessing how far the new reproductive technologies mirror Frankenstein — and the texts the novel critiques — in the circumvention of the maternal.
