From Mistery to Mastery, and Back Again: Reframing Technological Procreation Through Awe

This paper explores how reproductive biotechnologies — from IVF and surrogacy to ultrasound imaging and genome editing — have progressively mediated and transformed the awe once surrounding natural procreation. As the womb evolves from a hidden and protective space into a transparent and surveilled one, the sacred dimension of reproduction — understood both as reverence and as Agambenian separateness — appears increasingly eroded. By re-centering awe in the debate on reproductive and genetic technologies, this work proposes a reframing of the relationship between theology and technology. It suggests that awe can function as an ethical bridge between these domains, fostering an understanding of procreation grounded in openness, relationality, and the responsible formation of the self as a procreative agent.