"Over and
above the intrusion into the private lives of their employees, I think we need
to discuss the manipulation of life itself! Google, for example, currently invests
in extensive research into overcoming death. Now they want to interfere with
the question of birth. Is there nothing that can resist Google? I want to add
that the couple, even life itself, will no longer be able to resist, either. We
are observing a stupefying seizure of power by these companies, which are
meddling with the future of the whole of humanity."
An interview with philosopher and theologian Bertrand Vergely*
Facebook and Apple are
offering financial support for women who want to freeze their eggs to
concentrate on their careers. Philosopher Bertrand Vergely
sees it as a "manipulation of life."
FigaroVox: Two giants of Silicon Valley,
Facebook and Apple, want to facilitate the freezing of oocytes
for employees who want it. The goal, according to the companies, is to provide
opportunities for women not to have to choose between career and family life.
Should we see this as progress for liberty or a worrying trend?
Bertrand Vergely: The thing is presented in a very ambiguous
manner. On the one hand, one can see a desire on the part of the companies not
to punish women due to pregnancy. Up to now, a woman might not be hired because
it was assumed she would have to leave to look after her children, and one may
well not be able to count on her. This measure would allow these women to
overcome this discrimination: the companies are in the midst of their own
struggle against sexism, and this measure is real progress.
On the other hand, under the pretext of respecting women as
persons, they are perhaps not respectful enough of the human being as a person.
From the moment you freeze eggs or sperm and engage in a process of artificial
procreation, you are manipulating human beings. In this way, reproductive technology
becomes impersonal and is conducted outside of the bodies of parents. Moreover,
Facebook, Apple and Google, for example, are in fact using this proposal to
make money: women become even more exploited and, liberated from
responsibilities of motherhood, can dedicate themselves body and soul to the
company. Most striking is that this gain in productivity, hidden under a feminist
shell, creates an excellent image.
We therefore have a formidable cocktail, between a feminist
image on the one hand, and the exploitation and depersonalization of woman on
the other. It is also very difficult to criticize businesses, protected as they
are by their apparent struggle for equality and the advancement of women -
without appearing to be a sexist reactionary.
FigaroVox: This measure is presented by the
companies as a choice. However, isn’t there a risk that the companies might put
pressure on women to freeze their eggs and concentrate on work? That raises the
question of corporate intrusion into private lives.
Bertrand Vergely: Of course. In addition, today a treadmill is
being set up: today we are pushing women to freeze their eggs. And tomorrow - where
will we go? Will babies be created by science? I recall that there is a proposed
artificial uterus that could reproduce the optimal conditions to receive an
embryo. Such a project would allow for extra-uterine pregnancy, getting rid of
the father and mother. As a matter of fact, reproduction of human beings would
no longer be through the body of humanity - but through a machine.
Companies like Google, Apple and Facebook are now interfering
with the reproduction of the human race. Over and above the intrusion into the
private lives of their employees, I think we need to discuss the manipulation
of life itself! Google, for example, currently invests in extensive research into
overcoming death. Now they want to interfere with the question of birth. Is
there nothing that can resist Google? I want to add that the couple, even life
itself, will no longer be able to resist, either. We are observing a stupefying
seizure of power by these companies, which are meddling with the future of the
whole of humanity.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
FigaroVox: Does that prove right those who are concerned
about the possible legalization of surrogate motherhood and medically assisted
births? Will this lead to the commodification of the human
body? As a result of technological progress, are we witnessing a dehumanization
of man?
Bertrand Vergely: First, I do think the government is furious
about the reaction of citizens to same-sex marriage. It has realized its mistakes
in managing this crisis after having faced huge demonstrations and its failure
to mobilize supporters in its own camp. It is now employing a new strategy,
more discrete, to get us to accept surrogate motherhood and medically assisted
births. A similar process is already in place in schools to introduce gender
theory without triggering conflict: they are no longer teaching equality and
gender so directly, but are proposing that children go and see the "Zizi sexuel" (an exhibition
for the sexual education of children recently opened in Paris). Afterwards, parents
go over the content of the exhibition with the children.
This, this type of measures, put forward by Google,
Facebook or Apple, can be leveraged by government, which could then sat that if
such measures exist abroad, they should also be introduced in France, and thus
for all couples, heterosexual as well as homosexual. One thing leads to another
and we will soon have medically assisted births, and then surrogate motherhood.
In my view, we are entering into a worrying process.
Our society would like to apply these scientific techniques to man. In other
words, it is trying to delegitimize man to negate his individuality and more
easily implement its algorithms - the keys to understanding the world. The goal
is to simplify human beings - to dematerialize and de-individualize in the name
of this simplification, made possible by modern technology. Man is
thus to be gradually sacrificed to money, business, capitalism, and the new
world religions.
*Bertrand Vergely is a
philosopher and theologian. He is author of 'Deviens
qui tues: La philosophiegrecque à l'épreuve du quotidian' (Become Who You Are: Greek Philosophy
Tested by Daily Life, Albin Michel, 2014).
