The womb, that secretive house of early life, is coming under the spotlight. For a long time it was scarcely mentioned in public at all, save in obstetrics, gynaecology, DH Lawrence novels and the Bible. In recent years, however, the uterus has attracted the dubious attentions of the ‘wellness’ industry: Gwyneth Paltrow even recommended ‘cleansing’ it by sitting over a machine pumping out ‘mugwort steam’. And now a new book by the writer and midwife Leah Hazard – Womb: The Inside Story of Where We All Began – looks at this shape-shifting organ from all angles: medical, emotional, political and futuristic. What emerges from her examination is fascinating, contentious, and potentially chilling – as she looks ahead to a future in which the womb, as we understand it, may gradually become redundant.
Is it morally defensible to allow wealthy men and women to rent the wombs of poorer women?
For now, however, it remains a natural phenomenon: a wilier, grabbier and more dynamic organ than many might have suspected.
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