Communicating with Mothers

The dominant values of American society are propelling us toward a future in which there may well be no limits on the use of new technologies that could alter human nature. The premise of the work of Mothers for a Human Future is that maternal values, focused as they are on the preservation and nurturance of children, may be a source of values that could help us set limits.

Mothers have presided over a particular way of bringing human beings into the world—a way that has at its core the values of connectedness, concern for the other, and stewardship (values that are also at the heart of our humanity). This way of bringing children into the world is being fundamentally transformed--and these core values are now threatened--by technology.

This presentation will focus on Mothers for a Human Future's fledgling efforts to: 1) raise awareness among mothers about the implications of new technologies that are changing how human beings are made; 2) help bring those of us who mother into the public conversation about these technologies; and 3) persuade mothers that we are custodians of an alternative source of values that can help guide and restrain society in the use of these technologies.