未来家族の展望  [in Japanese] The Structure of Families in the Future  [in Japanese]

With the beginning of the 21^<st> century, how has the family unit changed? Advances in medical science in the area of fertility have helped reduce the connection between traditional methods of getting pregnant and actually giving birth to a child. IVF(In Vitro Fertilization) technology has meant that it is now possible to artificially control the birth from the very beginning. In addition, the phenomenon of surrogate motherhood has made it possible to sever the connection between a birth and the relationship between parent and child. In some unusual cases, there may not be a direct relationship between both the father and mother and the child, nor a genetic relationship between the woman and the baby she is carrying inside her. Several cases like this have been reported. In such cases as these, how should the family structure be defined? The technique of freezing individual sperm and eggs as well as already fertilized eggs makes it possible to control the actual timing of the birth, a further technique making the process of creating a family more artificial. In the future, cloning without the need for fertilization will also be possible. As the number of people getting married decreases, the number of people divorcing increases and the number of people opting for open gay or lesbian relationships also increases, one may wonder whether the current widely recognized structure of marriage will continue and indeed question whether it will remain necessary. The decreasing number of children within families and the increasing number of aged people within society has meant that lifestyle and patterns of cohabitation between parents and children will change. As life expectancy increases the situation may occur where four or five generations of a family will exist at the same time, compared to two or three as we are now accustomed to. The reduction of birth rates may also cause the creation of a family structure with no extended family members, rather just single familial lines passed down from one generation to the next. Now is the time when questions must be asked about the direction family structures will take in the future. With technology developing at such a rapid rate, serious ethical issues arise as to how we should reconcile scientific pursuits with the values of family life we recognize as being important today.