ABSTRACT

The kind of genetic engineering envisaged, and many related developments – in the artificial inducing of fertilization; the growth and cultivation of embryos in the laboratory; the freezing, keeping, choosing and implanting of some of them and continued experimentation on others – already constitutes a large field of scientific work. The promiscuity theory really belongs to the mythological stage of human intelligence, and is on a par with many savage myths concerning the origin of marriage, and the like. The Greeks and Romans sometimes included male characteristics in their conception of the Goddess of Love, and lifted marriage to the ideal plane in the conception of the sacred marriage. More simply, many peoples have thought of a divine trinity of persons to symbolise the family of husband, wife and child; Christian Europe, for instance, has worshipped the Holy Family for many hundred years. Artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, surrogate motherhood, and other methods of overcoming infertility are increasingly practised.