Artificial wombs: bold science expected by 2025

By Dick Pelletier

      

    In 1923, British scientists JBS Haldane imagined a time when human pregnancy would disappear. In a presentation at Oxford University, he prophesied that by 1951, having children will become a complete out-of-body experience.

    Of course, Haldane's timing was wrong, but his vision was crystal clear. Cornell University’s Dr. Hung-Ching Liu believes her research will produce a viable artificial mouse womb by 2015, and by as early as 2025 a human model could be achieved.

    Experts believe artificial wombs will become commonplace by the 2030s. Conception could be only a clinical procedure with sperm and egg merged in the lab, or performed the old-fashioned way with a night of passionate love, then transferring the embryo to an artificial womb.

    Concerns over losing emotional connection between mother and newborn are unwarranted, say scientists. Artificial intelligence advances expected by mid-2020s will enable doctors to duplicate the exact parent emotions and personalities and continuously send those feelings 24/7 to the baby.

    At stake in adapting this technology is the very meaning of life. Thoughts of mother-child relationships, the nature of female bodies, and the significance of being born, not "made" all play a role in defining life.

    Let's say, for example, that artificial wombs evolve to the point where they become superior to the old-fashioned way of having babies and more people start preferring them. Babies would be immune to introductions of alcohol or illegal drugs by careless mothers. The correct body temperature will always be maintained and 100% of the daily nutrients will be provided. Plus, monitoring by an always-on intelligence system guarantees perfect DNA development of every cell.

    People might begin to ask: Why take the risk of gestating my baby in a biological womb? This new technology will give me a child that has my exact genetic makeup, a perfect personality, and zero flaws.

    In the near term, experts say, most women will probably gestate their children the old-fashioned way, but career-minded females may welcome a new concept that enables them to raise a family without enduring a pregnancy that often weakens their job status.

    Ultimately, this technology will enable anyone: single, married, male, female, young, old, heterosexual or gay to combine DNA from their own body with another person – and the gene pool marches on. And, there's no morning-sickness to contend with.

    As this futuristic science matures, people will be able to freeze their eggs and sperm during their teen years when they are most physically fit, then create children later in life when they’re ready to start a family. Artificial wombs may sound too radical, but when you think about it; people already donate eggs and sperm to create life in a lab and bring it to term in a surrogate mother.

    In an unusual twist, this technology offers justification to pro-lifers in the abortion debates. Choosing an abortion to protect a mother's health would no longer be necessary. Artificial wombs could bring all aborted embryos to term, thus saving countless lives.

    Will artificial wombs become commonplace in the 2030s? Experts believe that they will. This technology seems like the next logical step as we get closer to what promises to become an amazing "magical future."

This article appeared in various print publications and on-line blogs. Comments always welcome.