The miracle of life.
A 40-week process
where you developed from a single cell
to fully formed human baby.
All within your mother's womb.
Now, imagine you were born
in an artificial womb.
A cutting edge device,
perfectly replicating, and even improving
on the environment of the womb.
What if we were able to use
these artificial wombs to give birth,
and brought babies into the world
with advanced technology?
You probably don’t remember your
formative months in the womb,
but it’s safe to say you were born
from a good old-fashioned womb.
Now, what if you were born
from a state of the art artificial womb?
Well, it could give a fetus
a fully optimized environment
in which to develop,
with a carefully calculated formula for
hormone and nutrient needs.
And the fetus would not be exposed to
any infectious diseases.
Artificial wombs would allow gay male couples
and single men the opportunity to have a baby
without the need for a human surrogate.
They would also give transgender women,
women born without a uterus,
and those who have lost their uterus
due to medical conditions or injuries,
a chance to have children.
But how would this benefit
the little tykes themselves?
Much of the research based around
the advancement of artificial wombs
is on the care of premature babies.
In 2017, an experiment was performed
by fetal surgeon Dr. Alan Flake
of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
using an amniotic sac,
aka a "biobag."
This was used to provide lamb fetuses,
placed in a sterile fluid,
with a protein and nutrient-rich blood supply.
The experiment simulated the
23rd to the 27th week of a human pregnancy.
After they were removed from the biobags,
the lambs grew up just as a
traditionally born lamb would.
On the other hand,
we have to wonder if there could be
any downsides to using artificial wombs.
If artificial womb births were to
become available and affordable,
society would be bombarded by debates.
Ethics, science, technology, politics, religion,
societal structure and economics
would all be stirred together into
one big punch bowl of non-stop disputes.
According to Detroit Medical Center
neonatologist Dr. Sanjay Chawla,
an artificial womb can't replace
the maternal influences of labor,
or the placental influence of hormones
and biochemical signals.
On top of that, if artificial wombs
were used the wrong way,
or for the wrong reasons,
we could be looking at a dystopian nightmare.
It could lead to things like “baby factories,”
where children are manufactured and sold.
A serious rift could occur in our society as the
number of artificial womb children increases.
The debate could include questions like,
is it fair to apply the same standards to kids
who come from a mother’s womb as we do
to those born from perfected, artificial wombs?
Or what if something goes wrong
during the gestation period?
And would the wealthy bypass the risks
associated with natural wombs
and just use the artificial ones?
It's definitely a lot to think about.
Research is already underway
at the Eindhoven University of Technology.
The University is developing a way
to provide babies with artificial incubators
Ones that could help simulate
the biological conditions of a womb.
This way, the babies could receive
nutrients and oxygen via an artificial placenta
connected to an umbilical cord.
If all goes according to plan,
the research will continue for five years,
and then human babies will be involved.
In the artificial womb environment,
they will have everything around them
that they would have in a natural womb.
Whatever happens,
it’s sure to ruffle a few feathers.
But if we develop this technology
as a means to help premature infants survive,
the idea becomes a noble one.
It makes you think about what else
we could create artificially.
Maybe one day, we’ll need to
construct an artificial planet
- to house humanity after
we’ve exhausted the Earth.