A Speculative Project about Same-Sex Childbearing
(Im)possible Baby imagines a future in which same-sex partners can have children together using the DNA markers of both parents. Simulated family photos show what the couple’s children might look like as they grow older. The artist behind the project, Ai Hasegawa, developed the project in consultation with scientists, with the goal of inspiring informed debate.
Description: Four portraits, a video monitor, and a family photo. The portraits include two parents and two children. The two parents are two women. The portrait on the left shows a woman with chin length dark hair and small bangs. She has medium light skin. She is Japanese. The portrait on the right depicts a woman with short, dark brown hair. Her hair is about ear length. Her hair swoops to the side. She has light skin. The next portraits are of two children. The portrait on the left shows a child with long brown hair and bangs. They have medium light colored skin. The portrait on the right has a child with short medium brown hair. Their hair is just above chin length. They have light colored skin.
Description: The family photo shows all four members together. [pick a description:] The portrait shows the whole family outside standing in a line. They are surrounded by trees. The portrait shows all four of them playing together in a living room. The portrait shows all four of them celebrating at a birthday party. The portrait depicts them all eating around a table.
There is a video that accompanies this installation. This video depicts various interviews. A photo of the couple at a birthday party. Text comes up that states, “(im)possible baby interview.” An interview of the couple: Moringa, Office worker, Married Asako in France. The other is Asako Makimura, Media personality, writer, Married Moriga in France.The spoken language is Japanese and it includes English subtitles.
The subtitles state:
Interviewer: What if Mameko and Powako really existed?
Asako: We’d want to raise them, and live together.
Moriga: They’d be our children, it’d be all well and good. I want to take them hiking.
Interviewer: You’ll take them hiking?
Moriga: And camping.
Asako: Take me, too.
Asako: Mommy will work hard, so they can study whatever they want.
Interviewer: Are you eager to have children?
Moriga: I am not eager to have children. I’ve never wished to have children.
Asako: I’m not eager to have children now, either. Long ago, when I was little, I believed that I had to have children. That it was women’s duty, as a gender, to get married and have babies.
Interviewer: What made you change your mind?
Asako: I saw various ways of life. Also…I realized that life is…not to be lived according to what other people say, that it’s okay to live your life the way you think is right.
Interviewer: Why did you not want biological children?
Moriga: I had already realized that I could only love women, but…I had never seen such…relationships around me, so I thought that it would never happen for me. That’s why I decided to enjoy life, travel a lot, meet different people, and live on my own.
Interviewer: What is the relationship between parenthood and loneliness?
Asako: There is this yearning for a person who’ll always be on your side, no matter what, against the whole world. An easy-to-understand embodiment of this yearning is the image of the perfect mother, perfect father, perfect child. But that’s just an image of a perfect family. It’s a myth. A life spent pursuing this myth seems a bit hard to me. People are a lonely species, and nothing can change this. In that case…we must accept loneliness, accept that life is lonely. That is the starting point.
Moriga: Sharing is just an illusion, after all.
Yoshimi Yashiro Ph.D. Associate Professor Uehiro Research, Division for iPS Cells Ethics, Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA), Kyoto University: As long as adequate safety is ensured, maybe not on the level of natural birth, but on a level close to that of artificial insemination procedures such as in-vitro fertilization and micro-insemination, I don’t see why it shouldn’t be done.
Interview with Satsukipon, Media personality, Model, Writer, MtF (Male to Female): “I am MtF (Male-to-Female). I was designated male at birth, but then transitioned to female, and now I am living as a woman. Recently, I have been yearning to have a child. I didn’t like children, but I suddenly changed in the past couple of years. I don’t understand it myself. Had I always wanted children, I wouldn’t have changed my gender. I changed it because I thought I didn’t want children.
Interviewer: What if you could have biological children?
Satsukipon: If this technology is put into practice, physically, it will be possible for me to have children but then I might be denied this chance because of ethical reasons. Society might consider it ethically wrong, but if I have a child I am confident that I will love it for as long as I live. I’m also sure that everyone around me will shower this child with affection. Considering all this, I think that as long as there is love, it should be all right.
Interview with Tomohiro Kono Ph.D. Professor, Laboratory of Development Biology, Department of Bioscience, Tokyo University of Agriculture: Even if the safety of this technology is verified, would it be appropriate to immediately apply it to people? Absolutely not! There hasn’t been sufficient discussion about what kind of society are we aiming to create through this technology. The technology has the potential to wield a huge impact across generations. The rules for its application as medical care ought to change in the future. I don’t think that creating iPS cells and sperm from a sterile man qualifies as medical care at this point. I think it has something to do with the issue of life. It’s because life is such an essential element of our nature, that this issue should not be settled merely through logical arguments. Human sensibilities are another extremely important standard for making decisions. If someone says they believe in God, and you ask them why they believe, you’ll get stuck in a pointless argument.
Interview with Obata: Art Installer, FtM (Female to Male): Female-to-male gender transition. To change your gender in the family register, you need surgery to remove the reproductive organs.
Interviewer: I see
Obata: In Japan today, such surgery is not covered by insurance, so it costs in the range of a million yen. I still haven’t had surgery. It restores psychological well-being, but cannot guarantee physical health. The liver is weakened, so alcohol should be avoided.
Interviewer: Have you ever wanted to give birth?
Obata: I have never wanted to give birth. I have never even considered it, so I don’t know…
Interviewer: What if you could have a biological child with your partner?
Obata: I would like to preserve the genes of the person I love rather than my own. I’d hate the idea of buying a stranger’s sperm to preserve my partner’s genes. If that was possible, life would become more diverse. Like with Ms. Makimura…Celebrating birthdays with your children growing up and growing old together, all these family things, family events, if you will…All these happy, colorful occasions will multiply. Perhaps because it is impossible, I really want to do it.
Interview with Mikihiko Wada Ph.D., The Civil Code, “Law and Genetics,” “Law and Evolutionary Biology & Psychology,” Professor, Faculty of Law, Hosei University.
Mikihiko: I will give my opinion not based on personal creeds and beliefs, but as a researcher of law, acting in accordance with my conscience and sense of responsibility.
Interviewer: What is your opinion, as a researcher of law, on same-sex marriage?
Mikihiko: Physiological aversion and discomfort are not valid reasons to oppose it. From the perspective of protecting the legitimate rights of minorities, Japan should introduce same-sex marriage under our current Constitution. According to Article 24, “marriage shall be based on the consent of both sexes.” The words, “husband and wife” are used but this has a simple explanation. As it is clear from the history of enactment of the Constitution in 1946, its purpose was to correct the gender inequality in Japan’s family system and stipulate the equality of men and women.
Articles 13 and 14 stipulate that “All of the people shall be respected as individuals.” The equality under the law stipulated in Article 14 takes precedence, so the concept that same-sex marriage is illegal under Article 24 is wrong.
Interviewer: What about the right of same-sex couples to have biological children?
Mikihiko: I believe that same-sex couples have the right to have biological children. The stance of the Supreme Court of Japan on such issues is extremely passive, and since relevant legislation has not been enacted yet, unfortunately any lawsuits demanding such rights based on interpretations of the Constitution are doomed to fail. This is the situation at the moment.
Ai Hasegawa