Pregnant on the Moon

[minoanmiss]

What happens if an astronaut unexpectedly gets pregnant on the moon?



I think it says something about US culture that even in a liberal online newsmagazine abortion is only brought up by the antagonist and completely dismissed without even a discussion.

Which brings me to a wider point: there's a general suggestion to start a piece of fiction "as close to the end as possible" but here the author started too close to the end and left a big chunk of story out. I want to know why the protagonist and her partner/coworker decided to have the child, and what their plans are to take care of the child On The Moon, beyond the romantic notion of "You’re going to give birth to the first lunar citizen, the first person for whom borders truly mean nothing." How will that person be viable and survive? What if the mother doesn't survive? Pregnancy and childbirth still kill people every day and I don't think that can be 100% fixed no matter what our technology levels.

I am critical of this story in part because I wrote a fanfic with a similar premise, and so I honestly think, despite the cute tech solution suggested, that I may have put more thought into mine than this author put into theirs. And they got paid for it.

Comments

[vettecat]

That story is just really badly written in general. Ugh.

[minoanmiss]

Word. That infodump in the middle was so unskilled.

[stranger]

It's a thought-provoking story, though the idea of a child born on the Moon having no national borders is pretty much contradicted by the tensions between various nationality groups each still bound by their Earth nations' laws. I want to dissect this story a lot, especially because it's clearly a precursor riff on Moon is a Harsh Mistress, but picks up on pregnancy issues that Heinlein (being Heinlein) blew right past.

Of course the antagonist should have pushed more for abortion as obvious and reasonable, but the couple has already decided for the "first Lunar citizen" idea. At least there are abortifacients as standard medical supplies, which is more than I'd expect from current nations' space agencies.

This story puts some ideas out there, but there's room for more and more honest thought on the subject, in fanfic or anywhere.

[minoanmiss]

but the couple has already decided for the "first Lunar citizen" idea.

That's the thing -- I think the most important part of the story is the story of their decision, and that got left out. Was this an accident? Did they decide to try for a baby? Did either of them consider abortion, separately or together? The story shows them as a unified front -- how did they coalesce into that unified front?

Plus, you know, radiation.

[sovay]

I am critical of this story in part because I wrote a fanfic with a similar premise, and so I honestly think, despite the cute tech solution suggested, that I may have put more thought into mine than this author put into theirs. And they got paid for it.

So can I just skip reading the clickbait article and read your fanfic?

(My immediate, perhaps downbeat response is that I'm really skeptical about viability in this situation, on account of we did not evolve to gestate in different gravity and both space and pregnancy do such weird things to people's bodies.)

[minoanmiss]

Well, I'm not going to say no.... :)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/5342372

And yeah, my story centered around viability too.

[sovay]

Well, I'm not going to say no....

Thank you!

(That canon makes sense for the premise.)

[amaebi]

That's very good.

I'm pretty sure I know what you'll say, but-- might you think about filing off the serial numbers and submitting it to an SF magazine? I don't know the characters from the original fic/movie particularly well, and it really doesn't matter.

And if "The Cold Equations" continues to be celebrated, this should be so much more.

[minoanmiss]

I think I might have fun starting from the premise and working up an original setting, a mission, and a different set of characters. I alredy thought of making *her* the ship's doctor, ahahaha.

Thank you for the inspiration. :)

[hitchhiker]

ugh, that read like a few paragraphs extracted from a larger short story and then strung together.

[minoanmiss]

Don't they just? Like someone took the instruction "this neeeds editing" ENTIRELY the wrong way.