ABSTRACT
This chapter explores two seemingly oppositional forms of feminist discourse that have emerged in response to new reproductive technology (NRT) since the 1980s, representing the disembodying of reproductive processes, and analyses the notion of liberation which underlies each. Resistance feminists, who argue against new reproductive technologies, believe there is something powerful about women's natural reproductive bodies that are lost with NRTs. According to Merete Lie, NRTs sever the woman-nature connection via motherhood. Shulamith Firestone's pro-technology stance extends beyond NRTs. She advocates broader use of technology to fix environmental erosion. Analysing reproductive discourse since the advent of NRTs provides resistance feminists with much evidence of women's disembodiment. Undermining the NRT discourse resistance feminists focus on collective, rather than individual, solutions to reproductive problems such as infertility, and blur the social/biological division. Embracing feminists believe the application of technology to the body dissolves boundaries such as those between man/woman, culture/nature, society/biology, and human/machine.
