Artificial wombs: triumph of modern science, or ultimate human folly

By Dick Pelletier

      

    Cutting-edge research in the U.S. and Japan will soon launch a new era in human procreation – a world in which embryos can be 'brought to term' in artificial wombs, eliminating traditional pregnancies.

    Cornell University's Dr. Hung-Ching Liu has engineered endometrial tissues by prompting cells to grow in an artificial uterus. When Liu introduced a mouse embryo into the lab-created uterine lining, "It successfully implanted and grew healthy," she said in a New Atlantis Magazine interview. Scientists predict this research could produce an animal womb by 2015-2020, and a human model by early 2030s.

    In Japan, Juntendo University researcher Yosinori Kuwabara and his team kept goat fetuses growing for ten days by connecting umbilical cords to machines that pumped in blood, oxygen and nutrients, and disposed waste. While this womb was only a prototype, Kuwabara predicts that a fully functioning artificial womb capable of gestating a human fetus will evolve in the near future.

    Experts believe artificial wombs could one day supplant natural ones. Conception would become clinical, and birth, bloodless. Gestation would be detached from motherhood; the fetus would always be viable the moment sperm and egg fused.

    However, ethicists voice concerns that this technology could endanger the very meaning of life. Mother-child relationships, the nature of female bodies, and being 'born', not 'made' all play a role in defining life. But proponents argue that people will reason, "Why risk gestating the baby in a biological womb, when this new science can produce a child with our exact genetic makeup, perfect personality, and zero flaws."

    "The womb is a dark and dangerous place, a hazardous environment," says University of Virginia Professor Joseph Fletcher. Fetuses are 100% dependent on their mom's health and sensible judgment. If the mother falls prey to accidents, disease, or inadequate nutrition, the embryo can become traumatized.

    Although naysayers believe that this bold science makes us less human, most experts predict that artificial wombs will one day be accepted by mainstream society as more people recognize its many benefits. Babies would no longer be exposed to alcohol or illegal drugs by careless mothers, and the correct body temperature would always be maintained, with 100% of necessary nutrients provided.

   Concerns over losing emotional bond between mother and newborn are unwarranted, say scientists. Artificial intelligence advances expected over the next two decades will enable doctors to reproduce exact parent emotions and personalities via vocal recordings, movement, and other sensations. The developing infant would be maintained in a safe secure environment, connected electronically to the mother 24/7.

    In the near term though, experts predict most women will probably gestate their children the old-fashioned way; but career-minded females might welcome a concept that allows them to bear children and raise a family without becoming pregnant, a physical condition that often weakens their job status.

    Ultimately, this technology would enable anyone – single, married, male, female, young, old, heterosexual or gay – to combine DNA from his or her own body with another person; and the gene pool marches on – with a clean, painless, and bloodless birth; and with no morning sickness.

    As this science matures, people could freeze eggs and sperm in their teen years when they are most physically fit; then create children later when ready for a family. Artificial wombs may sound radical, but 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 not be necessary, as artificial wombs could bring all aborted embryos to term. Unwanted pregnancies would no longer mean a death sentence for the unborn.

    Positive futurists believe that as we trek through the last half of the 21st Century, this procedure could become the world's most preferred method of birthing; but today, many disagree. Some see the artificial womb as a triumph of modern science – others see it as the ultimate human folly. Only time will tell which views are correct. What's your opinion? Please email your thoughts to futuretalk@positivefuturist.com.

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