Anticipating Family Automation: Public Imaginaries of Robotic Surrogacy and Co-Parenting

Abstract

Humanoid robotics is moving from industrial and service settings into intimate domains of family life, making robotic surrogacy and robotic co-parenting plausible but morally contested futures. This paper examines how prospective users perceive the potential role of humanoid robots in reproduction and parenting, focusing on perceived barriers, anticipated consequences and ethical dilemmas. The study is based on a multi-method qualitative design, including 40 AI-assisted interviews and four face-to-face focus groups. Data were examined using thematic analysis grounded in ethics of care and attachment theory. Findings reveal a conditional openness to robots as functional assistants, such as offloading repetitive childcare tasks, contrasted with profound moral resistance to relational substitution. We identify a critical red line where automation transitions from supportive assistance to a human identity threat zone where the potential dehumanisation of foundational parent-child bonds leads to technology resistance. We propose that resistance is concentrated where robotic mediation is perceived to substitute for, rather than augment, primary human attachment relationships. We contribute an attachment-grounded framework by showing that adoption of intimate robotics depends not only on technical feasibility or perceived usefulness, but on whether future users locate robots within a utility zone or a relational substitution zone.