The impact of biomedical and information technologies on women's social roles

Karas' Nikolai Mikhailovich ORCID: 0000-0001-8195-8955 Graduate student, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumumba 141070, Russia, Moscow region, Korolev, Udarnik Ave., 28 daikan85@mail.ru

Women's social roles in the context of the impact of biomedical technologies

Postmodernism, replacing modernism, not only expanded the range of discourses and narratives, but also had a significant impact on the social fabric of society. One of the important problems, according to the authors, is the blurring of social roles. The article accepts the understanding of the “social role” as the nodal point of intersection of society and the individual, as well as as a set of actions corresponding to status, sexual orientation, which is an important factor and condition for the self-determination of the individual. Which is quite close to the dichotomy proposed in gender sociology, in which gender is a cultural and social conditioning. Many scientists such as E. Giddens, J. Baudrillard, Y. Evola, M. Foucault studied the problems of sexual self-determination, sexual orientation, and social roles. The article also presents a number of authors who have studied virtual information technologies: A.N. Pavlenko, E. Davis.

Another feature of the problem considered in the article is the development of biomedical technologies. The authors propose an original approach to the intersection of bioethics and social roles. The impact on the social roles of biotechnologies is viewed in a negative way. These processes were studied by P. D. Tishchenko, O. V. Popova, O. V. Savina. The problems of biotechnology were considered by researchers mainly from the point of view of human generation as an artificial artifact. This problem was also considered from the point of view of increasing the social status of women, as well as the problem of their economic exploitation, but less attention was paid to the transformation of social roles. A separate layer of biotechnology research in the context of bioethics concerns the existential meanings of the human design project (in the face of death and immortality and the idea of man as such).^[12]

A stable idea has been created that social roles can hardly be considered from the point of view of a biological context. The social side of the mother's role is obvious and negates the biological factor, but this is only at first glance. We will not consider the psychological aspect of motherhood and self-awareness of a woman as a mother. The article focuses on the ontological side of the issue: the idea that it is due to its biological component that a woman perceives herself as a potential mother. Some biological factors are important for the formation of the social image of motherhood and the social role of the mother, respectively ^[7]: the perinatal period, the psychophysiological relationship between mother and child, the process of birth associated with pain. And this potency of motherhood, even unrealized, is fueled by her gender. The social role, based on the potency of motherhood, translates the biological individual into society, thus socializing the biological and transforming the individual into the public. The collective body, A. I. Makarov and A. A. Toropova write in their work on the concept of corporeality, is the result of "socio-cultural integrity, virtually present in consciousness as a normative and regulating text and image of an exemplary individual body" and thus a common social understanding of both the body and the role is formed. ^[8]

At this stage of technological progress, we have already come close enough to the possibility of excluding the participation of women for the reproduction of society, and thus the question arises: will women's social roles remain or not? Will there be a transformation in the relationship between a man and a woman, mother and child, father and child, and how will this affect society in general?

O. V. Popova's view of the artifact is interesting in this context. It can be assumed that an artificially created child will be perceived as an artifact ("an artifact is an artificial object, something produced, something created by man") not only by doctors, but also, presumably, by the child himself and, apparently, his genetic parents. At the moment, we can only assume how a person who has a genetic, biological resemblance to the rest of humanity, but at the same time is aware of himself as an artifact because of his very birth and the manipulations that took place with him even before that moment, will be aware of himself. ^[11]

It should be noted that despite the development of ART technologies, scientists have noted an increase in diseases of children born with the help of such technologies^[19], in turn, pushes the development of ART technologies further.^[1] The explosive growth of research on reproductive technologies is now opposed only by the ethical position of representatives of many countries, societies, religions, and ideological concepts. Only ethics stops us from more active research into reproductive technologies. Technological development allows us to work both on the human genome and on the processes of conception, gestation and birth. But at the same time, it must be borne in mind that if this ethical prohibition is lifted, and as a result of technological progress, well-known and currently developed technologies are built into one single process, then the key role of women in the reproduction of society may disappear.

At this stage of scientific and technological progress, scientists can interfere in the process of the birth of a new person, starting from the moment of conception: IVF, "designer babies" sperm and egg donation, freezing of genetic materials of parents. All these tools allow you to edit the child's genome at early stages of development, choose the moment and method of conception, and exclude, if necessary, one of the parents from the process of conception and childbirth.  The scope of ethical issues accompanying each of the proposed tools is quite large. In his work “The Existential meaning of human Design projects”, P. D. Tishchenko examines the ethical problems of life and death, which is undoubtedly being transformed under the influence of the development of biotechnologies in particular and NBIC technologies in general. It is curious that in his work he writes about existential substitution. Death is no longer as terrible as pain. ^[13] Following the philosopher's thought, it can be noted that this logic of “substitution” works both in general with an understanding of the semantic content of “social roles” and with the reason for this substitution. 

Let's assume that reproductive technologies allow us to replace and exclude a woman from the procreation process at all stages. If a child is conceived using the edited genetic material of the parents, placed in an artificial environment, then at this stage the emotional bonds of mother and child do not arise, which are formed during the "classic" gestation process.

Thus, we are faced with the question raised in the introduction about the relationship between gender and role. The potential for motherhood connects the social and biological components. Developing this idea, it is necessary to take the next step: the importance of gender and role for society. Thus, motherhood, motherhood, the desire for motherhood is an obligatory attribute of human society.

The biological role of the mother has a direct impact on the relationship between the father and the child. A man does not realize himself as a father as a result of physical, biological contact directly with the fetus. Entering into the social role of a father in a man is associated with a spiritual experience, as well as "Fatherhood is not biologically predetermined, but is considered as a social construct that depends on the social and economic, cultural, and political conditions within which parenthood is carried out."^[7] The man's personal experience of interacting with his mother plays an important role here. Even if this first experience is not fixed in the future for various reasons, it is stored in memory at the emotional level (in the deeper layers of nervous activity).

The emotional shock of birth, forgotten but preserved in the depths of the psyche, connects a man with his mother and indirectly with his child on the basis of a common emotional experience. This emotional experience becomes the foundation of spiritual, not biological intimacy with your child. Equally important is the exclusion from human experience of the process of natural childbirth, which through the mother-child bond unites the individual with the rest of humanity.

A woman needs tactile contact at all stages of gestation and childbirth. In the process of replacing a woman giving birth with a technological "device", there is no emotional, spiritual, biological, tactile contact and, accordingly, experience. The potency of motherhood is transformed into a simulacrum of experience, carrying nothing with it. The experience gained in the course of life in the past and present allows us to realize ourselves in the future. “Empty experience” denies this possibility, since it is nothing more than a simulacrum of experience.

So, the thoughtless, mass application of reproductive technologies is most dangerous for the roles: mother, wife. Because motherhood as a concept is inextricably linked to both mother, wife, and woman in general. It is necessary to clarify here that a man with children is connected more by an emotional, spiritual connection. While a woman is going through the very process of childbirth and is often very painful, which inextricably connects mother and child.

And already at this rather early stage, when the number of children born "in vitro" is not significant. But at the same time, such human reproduction is possible, massively and safely, then alarming trends arise for society. It can be assumed that as a result, a more active and in-depth study and development of methods for influencing DNA will be required than it is now, which will undoubtedly entail a number of ethical issues that are not obvious at this stage.  The harmonizing and stabilizing factor of a woman on society begins to decrease in direct proportion to the number of children born with the help of technology. And if the role of the mother exerts a long-term and more fundamental pressure on this process, then the decline in the importance of the role of the "wife" will be clearly noticeable and obvious in the short and medium term.

What is the danger of widespread use of such artificial ways of "giving birth" to children? To do this, it is necessary to formulate a question that will be considered later in the course of the article. What if these children know that they were not born naturally. Why is such an assumption important?  Being the result of high technology, they will presumably have an edited genome (so-called "designer babies"). Would that be necessary? Often not, but if it is possible to get rid of hereditary diseases and set the parameters of appearance, will the family planning such a child be able to avoid such a temptation? Which parent doesn't want their child to be beautiful, smart, and healthy? The question is rhetorical.

Thus, with the mass introduction of technology for creating such children, it will become almost impossible to hide the method of birth. Consequently, the isolation of a group of such children from the general contingent of children born naturally and the likely stigmatization can become a very painful process. This will lead to a crisis of self-identification of such children. Their relationship with their family and parents is quite conditional. Moreover, such a child will not be aware of the special connection with the mother, which is inherent in children born naturally. Even if the child is adopted and not born by the woman who brings him up, nevertheless, he has a common pattern of behavior: a woman is a mother and therefore occupies a special position in the child's life. In his work devoted to the study of intimacy, E. Giddens notes the transformation of the relationship to the mother from the biological to the social aspect, the idealization of the relationship to the mother and, of course, to women as “other, unknown beings belonging to a special area completely alien to them” [4 p. 68]. With the gradual decrease in the number of children, the role of the mother, precisely as a social role, begins to prevail over the biological one, but nevertheless remains closely intertwined with it, inseparable.                   

The concept of the "rhizome" proposed by Deleuze and Guattari, considered in the application of the primary cell of society and the most important agent of socialization - the family, allows us to trace the connections between the subjects. ^[5] At the same time, it should be borne in mind that this application is not full-fledged. Such generalization is minimally necessary, since time, one of the important criteria for society and the family, is not taken into account. Using the approach proposed by John McTaggert to describe time, we can say that the experience of ancestors through us, reborn and meaningful, is embodied in the future.^[18] We continuously inherit the past, broadcasting it into the future.

Thus, children created artificially will have a psychological barrier separating them from the wealth of experience of generations of ancestors. Conditionally, this barrier can be represented in a number of questions: do I belong to this family? To this country? This nation? And the final question: am I human? Questioned classical patterns of behavior, the requirements for social roles will become more and more acute for such children as they grow up. It should be added that society will demand the fulfillment of the intended social roles, regardless of the possibility and willingness to fulfill them.

It can be assumed that in this case, for a man, the priority of tasks based on the protection and provision of the family - wife and children - ceases to have any significance. Moreover, at the next stage, one of the most important connections of a man with society, carried out through his mother, is leveled.

Julius Evola, in his classic work on gender and sexuality, The Metaphysics of Gender, writes that the constant interest in gender, sex and woman in general speaks of the end of time, the era of the decline of history, the era of twilight. The elevation of a woman to the rank of "value" is disastrous. But before physical death occurs, a person is waiting for social death. It can be assumed that with an increase in the number of artificially born children, there will be an increase in interest in these children, women, but not mothers and fathers.^[1] The main focus of attention will be on the material aspect of existence, but not on the social role. Which, in turn, has a devastating effect on the social fabric of society. ^{[15, P- 33, 34]}

 The development of reproductive biotechnologies undoubtedly expands the capabilities of modern man, but it is necessary to critically analyze the possible advantages and disadvantages of this process. Of particular note is the intellectual and emotional inertia of society, which at the moment is not ready, in the opinion of the authors of the article, to accept such development and implementation.

Summing up the interim result, I would like to note that the importance and necessity of women for the reproduction of society will presumably decrease with the development of technology. Consequently, the social role of a woman as a mother recedes into the background. What danger this may pose to society, we have tried to describe above through the prism of a child born not naturally, but with the help of a conditional "test tube". The exclusion of women and mothers from the process of reproduction of society will lead to drastic changes in the structure of society. A woman will cease to carry this most important role for every person - the role of a mother, and other inherent roles will come to the fore. But, at the same time, they are less important and fundamental.

Information technology and its impact on women's social roles

Relationships with computer programs that are able to imitate a real girl are gradually becoming quite popular. Undoubtedly, a computer program is not able to replace or replace a fully living girl, but modern men are increasingly choosing this relationship option. Eric Davis, in his work on the information age, notes the identity of computer programs and gods, or rather spirits-loa. Indeed, it is impossible not to notice some sacralization of the relationship between a man and virtual girls. But more important is the moment of doubt that arises in a person when interacting with virtual girls - are they real or simulations?^[6] But such a relationship can be considered quite conditional. The harmony of relations is formed not only in a situation of complete agreement between partners, but also in times of crisis. It is at such moments that behavioral patterns are developed, which in the future will become the basis for fruitful relationships.

It should be noted that in the dichotomous connection of negative and positive experiences, many patterns of behavior are developed, which, in turn, rely on both the emotional connection of partners and the physical one. The concept of the Other, revealed in J. Baudrillard's Transparency of Evil, allows us to approach the need for positive and negative experiences, as well as, on a more fundamental level, the obligation of difference, due to which the exclusion of oneself from the whole occurs.^[2] If there is no Other in the process of relations, then the possibility of a full-fledged experience is denied, which makes it possible to exclude simulation. J.P. Sartre also uses this term, but relies on the ability to judge us by Others. ^{[12, p. 252]} The phenomenon of the Other stems from "beyond any possible experience for me." But nevertheless, the observing subject is necessary for the Other.

Virtual relationships, relationships with seemingly non-material objects, form an artificial, virtual, largely empty connection. Which, in turn, generates an empty experience that cannot be transformed into positive, useful behaviors. A.N. Pavlenko in his work "The Information veil of Consciousness and the Universe" notes that the "not-Me" separated from the "I" in the process of splitting turns out to be beyond the control of "no one and nothing" and more "acquires dictatorial functions in relation to the "I". Thus, within the framework of digitalization closely related to information, we can find that the constructed "numerical model" through the "technosis" of consciousness will control it, and in this case, human-built models will begin to control it.^[9]

The concept of a split and separated "I" proposed by A.N. Pavlenko, coupled with the need for Another person in both Sartre and Baudrillard's understanding, will lead to the formation of the very virtual spirit-loa that Eric Davis wrote about in Technognosis: Myth, Magic and Mysticism in the Information Age. But being nothing more than a product of human consciousness, the loa spirit and any communication with it will be completely disembodied and destructive for the human consciousness itself.

In such cases, there is a simulation of relationships with simulacra that replace the actors of the relationship, which leads to a reproducing hyperreality described in Jean Baudrillard's work “Symbolic Exchange and Death". Which will have and has an impact on the social fabric of society.^[3] The symbolic as an act of exchange and social relation destroys the real and creates an illusion. Illusory, penetrating to the level of relations between the simulating actors of relations, generate an experience that reproduces itself without a chance for development. The simulation and symbolization of social connections leads to the sacralization of connections, but not of social roles. The process becomes more important than both the result and the participants. The rupture of social ties and the gradual loss of interaction skills will negatively affect a person's understanding of the social role in society. At the same time, it should be emphasized that the loss of skill and understanding of the principles of social role will exert further pressure, which will lead to the marginalization of the institution of social role itself.

The search for oneself and one's role as an individual within the whole of humanity will acquire more fundamental foundations related to one's gender identity. In the absence of a social role and its connection with a person's gender, self-identification becomes not only difficult, but also practically impossible. E. Igli, in his work on the theory of social roles, draws attention to the fact that the formation of gender stereotypes is based on fixed differences between female and male roles, thus it can be assumed that the stereotyping of gender roles makes it possible to simplify the process of self-determination. ^[16]

An attempt to realize oneself through emptiness, through an "empty" experience, will lead to the collapse of personal self-awareness. The emptiness in this case is the absence of any experience, not a negative one. Even negative experience allows, with proper reflection, to develop the necessary conditions for the realization of the necessary social role. Emptiness and empty experience negates the possibility of epistemological understanding and ethical interpretation. O.V. Popova, in her work on the transformation of the human emotional sphere in the context of the development of digital technologies, writes about a new "controlled format of the human intimate sphere." The formation of a rational attitude towards intimate, loving, sexual relationships in which one of the actors is a person, and the other is a virtual object or a technical artifact, at first glance, really helps to get rid of loneliness. Liberation from loneliness without serious emotional, financial, and physical costs through communication with such objects ultimately leads not to the formation of new contacts in the real world, but to the final departure into the virtual world of simulacra. The influence of such virtual objects on the real world, albeit indirectly, is nevertheless already quite noticeable. A "reduced person who is convenient for the realization of certain needs" cannot be a full-fledged person and the relationship with such an object is nothing more than an ersatz.^[10]  

Thus, the emotional sphere of relations, the acquired experience, the created patterns that we can observe in some countries already suggest that mass implementation will lead to a crisis of social roles and, accordingly, the social fabric of society. This contradicts the rather popular concept of postgendernism. Sulamiri Firestone in The Dialectic of Gender suggests that the development of postgendernism ideas will exclude the mother-child relationship, as well as father-child, husband-wife. ^[17] Dependence will remain on the group, but not on specific individuals associated with appropriate social roles. The emphasis and hope on culture as a universal compensating mechanism capable of balancing the difference between actors looks rather far-fetched and illusory. In her work on postgendernism in the paradigm of transhumanism, Y.V. Khvastunova notes: "It is interesting that in Western postmodernism so much has been done to eradicate the concepts of "subject", "person" from philosophical constructions, in order to eventually replace the personality with an "instance/realization"."^[14]

On the other hand, there is a deformation of the received physical experience with dolls, "toys" that still imitate one or another gender. And a person in interaction with them tries to imitate, therefore, reproduce standard models of social interaction and social roles. Which, in the best case, is only a repetition of previously experienced and experienced experiences, or interaction with phantoms of consciousness and imagination. However, this interaction is also "empty" without content, in many ways, virtual. Therefore, the analogy with simulacra does not seem superfluous here.

Conclusion

The social role of the mother, perceived by a woman, is not so much the manifesto of each individual woman, as a form of dialogue between a woman and the world, a woman and society, a woman and time. The development of biotechnologies casts doubt on this dialogue, denying its necessity, negating the importance of the requirement to preserve natural connections. The formation of new types of social communication, which will be and are already being formed with intangible virtual objects, apparently does not contribute to getting rid of loneliness. Modern trends in the denial of identity, expressed through gender and social roles, do not lead to the liberation of the individual from the constraints that bind him. On the contrary, we can note an increasing trend towards treating a person as an object. The article examined various theories of the philosophy of gender and drew conclusions about the consequences of denying the social role of women. It has been shown that changes in the social roles of women in medical and information technologies can lead to the fact that the connection between the individual and humanity will not be formed, since belonging to society and humanity as a whole will be questioned.