‘낳기’에서 ‘만들기’로의 인구 정치학: 헉슬리와 해러웨이의 과학기술 중심의 인구통제론 비판

초록

Concerns about rapid population growth threatening the Earth’s ecosystem have been intermittently raised since Thomas Malthus first proposed the need for population control in his An Essay on the Principle of Population. The rise of neo-Malthusianism, which advocates for fertility regulation to manage population growth, has brought to light various technological birth control methods. This approach, gaining traction among ecologists and post-feminists, addresses climate change but faces critiques for focusing on population size rather than on increased greenhouse gas emissions linked to excessive consumption associated with ‘the imperial mode of living’ in the affluent Global North. Moreover, the discourse on population control is deeply interwined with the restriction of women’s rights, racially discriminatory practices and even coercive measures. This paper explores how technological population control has shifted women’s reproduction from ‘birthing’ to ‘making’. Technological interventions not only control population size but, as seen in Huxley’s Brave New World, also engineer its quality. These methods risk reinforcing gender, class, racial, and eugenic biases as well. Haraway’s proposal of “making kin, not babies” suggests that technology could aid both in population reduction and in the preservation of endangered species through kinnovation. Nonetheless, this paper argues that both Huxley’s and Haraway’s technocentric approaches to population control have significant limitations and calls for a more equitable ecological transition.

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