As much as I, or many other women, would love to find out how a man copes – or doesn’t cope – with a pregnancy, it is not something that is right nor good to do. A man is not designed to carry a baby and therefore, assuming that it were somehow possible and assuming no ethical debate, it would mean a lot more technology in order to make it happen. More doctors, more tests and generally an unnecessary overuse of resources.
There are ethical and emotional reasons why someone may think it was a good idea for a man to conceive and go through pregnancy such as those times when a couple have exhausted their options and still desperately want to have a child or for homosexual couples who would like to have a biological child of their own. Of course, the latter may bring about further arguments of same sex couple having children and the issues of those children being brought up by a couple in a same sex relationship.
Women are supposed to be the ones who bear children, that is why women are designed the way we are. Equality, equal rights, women’s liberation, etc. are all very well and it would be lovely if there were more men who took on “women’s” roles such as housekeeping and childrearing in order to balance this equality but I do not think that it should extend to men actually being pregnant and carrying babies. Partly because of the ethics of having to try and explain to a child that, while other children were “in Mummy’s tummy”, he/she was “in Daddy’s tummy”. It would be very difficult to explain that to a child who learns that Mums have the babies. Although, if it began and was taken up then people may begin to accept it as being normal just as they have accepted modern ideas of a family with a “stay at home Dad” and “working Mum”. It would surely take a very long time for this to be accepted though, considering that there are other situations which have been acceptable for a long time but are still discussed and debated as a moral or ethical issue.
In my honest personal opinion, I do not think many men would take up the opportunity to become pregnant although some may enjoy the novelty of it. Some women, of course, enjoy pregnancy. It it usually the actual giving birth part which causes the trouble! Then, there begs the question: If men are going to start becoming pregnant then are they going to be the ones to look after the children while the women continue working and do all the things the men would have done had the women had the baby?
