The future of artificial wombs
by Carder
While it may be worth thinking about the impact artificial wombs could have on our society one day, urgent discussion of this alternate future is premature. There’s no need to get too excited or freaked out about the idea anytime soon.
For now, growing a human baby in an external device remains solidly in the realm of science fiction.
~ Ellie Kincaid, summarizing the difficulties of developing artificial womb technology, Business Insider, May 21
May.22, 2015 6:00 am |
Bioethics |
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
The artificial technology is not the real problem.
Our problem is that many people have come to see artificial gestation as some sort of good thing…. just as renting a surrogate womb has come to be accepted as a good thing.
When Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World, readers reacted with horror at the descriptions of artificial gestation, eugenics, and cloning. Even more horrible was the way that people were programmed to accept these things as good…. anyone who dared to see the horror of it was ostracized and exiled.
But we are living this horror today. Anyone who dares to think that artificial marriage, or artificial motherhood, or artificially contracepted sex are not good is immediately declared to be a “bigot” or a “Christian” (with a snarl and a sneer) who is not accepting of “Science.”
Our problem is that many people have come to see artificial gestation as some sort of good thing…. just as renting a surrogate womb has come to be accepted as a good thing. – well it’s either that or abortion.
When Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World – it’s a book. You know, fiction.
“Artificial marriage”? Never heard that one before. Care to elucidate?
Quite sometime back Life mag. had a picture of a kid (goat) growing in an artificial womb. If remembering correctly they had a Japanese scientist stand with the container of the womb. If necessary will look for this article.
So many things are being worked on before the media is informed and then they may or may not pass that onto the general public.
Scientists are going to play. That is the secret appeal of research — get to play with the cool toys! That scientist in the linked article was playing with human embryos and mouse embryos — until the media scrutiny took all the fun out of it.
It is no surprise that a scientist, interested in the processes of gestation and embryonic development, might try to persuade an animal to develop in an artificial womb. When it doesn’t work, he gets to figure out why…. and along the way, he learns many things about the process. “Oh, this difficulty responds well to an increased dosage of progesterone.”
Much of this knowledge is eventually used to help with human healthcare. Only occasionally do we get the Frankenstein scenarios like D&E abortions and surrogate pregnancies. With careful legal and ethical controls, we can avoid those.
Artificial wombs would only lead to more killing and abuse of the unborn. If we can’t get society to respect the sanctity of life in a mother’s womb then why would anybody expect respect life in an artificial womb?
I honestly think that God handles the baby personally while in-utero. Unfortunately He does nothing about the gift of human free will while he holds that little baby in his lap, weaving together his or her the destiny of His making and of their desire.
Science aint got nothing on God!
Oh! Hey! Interesting seeting you here, Fantasy!
How are you Kiddo?
So… actually Aldus Huxley wrote a Brave New World BASED on what his brother was doing with Margaret Sanger and the Rockefeller institute. So it’s not fiction. Its a plan for our lives. I hope it remains fiction, but the reality(you know, that thing that is called truth?) is that its more and more starting to look like… reality. The Brave New World term is actually being embraced by mainstream media. And did you know Huxley’s ending was CHANGED on the book for the modern era? At one point it had a much more brutal and honest ending. I have an early edition of it.
CityOfAngels: I honestly think that God handles the baby personally while in-utero.
I think your usage of “baby” is so broad that this God would then be killing 75% or 80% of them in the first couple weeks after fertilization.
Science ain’t got nothing on God!
Heh – apparently, indeed not.
Science aint got nothing on God! – no, nothing at all. They’ve tried to find something on god but…..
Brave New World was written as parody, it sought to provide a frightening vision of the future.
So it’s not fiction. – It is most assuredly fiction.
Its a plan for our lives. – It is not a plan for anything or anyone.
I hope it remains fiction, – you just said it wasn’t fiction. Make up your mind.
but the reality(you know, that thing that is called truth?) – glad you recognize so.
I’ll admit to being sad that there is not more possibility of this (but I hated pregnancy and felt conflicted about the whole mothering experience until my daughter was born). I get it if it’s going to be sub-standard to being inside a living creature, and I wouldn’t take that risk either, but I really don’t get the “dignity of conception” thing.
The whole point of it is to get out and live life! As long as no one else is immediately harmed in the process, who cares!!