To think gestation outside the body is a fab idea

[Allotmentblackfly]

Recent research makes the possibility of gestating a baby outside a woman’s body possible. Do we think this is a good idea or not?

8 billion.

Agree though, that this is not needed, and is quite grim!

What in the living shite am I reading?

This

Absolutely not, no.

Just had a chat with hubby and told him no one on mumsnet agrees with me. He was not very sympathetic . He did make the valid point that if we did this long term, the species might evolve so that we lost the ability to give birth naturally at all.

This is interesting too. from wikipedia
In The Dialectic of Sex, Firestone argues that the biological division of humans based on reproductive roles is the root of women's subordination, perpetuating a patriarchal system most evident in the nuclear family. She envisions a future where artificial wombs liberate women from childbearing, rendering pregnancy obsolete. In this cybernetic communist utopia, all labor, not just reproductive, would be automated, eradicating the basis of traditional oppression.[6]

Nah. Women would still be oppressed only it would be even worse because we would no longer be required for breeding.

We'd probably be kept like cattle and exist to serve and to service men.

How would women be emancipated when child rearing involves a lot more than pregnancy and giving birth?

Do they stay in the pods until working age when they can be fully functioning members of the soulless, bloodless society this would lead to?

I can't work out if you're being faux naive to get a reaction out of people or if you really think it's a smart solution to a non existent problem.

Maybe you are right and our reproductive power is a source of strength. To be fair if women did not have to child bear, what would be the use of two sexes at all!!!! Especially if they can make gametes from skin cells - another thing that they are working on.

I actually think its completely fascinating. If someone from the last century could see how we live now - they would be amazed. The future is exciting. I kind of hope I live long enough to see what will happen next.

have you ever met a child or adult that was born very premature? Even if they don’t have any other diagnoses, (eg cerebral
palsy) it’s usually quite evident, to the trained eye at least. There is no way this would have absolutely no effect on the foetus.

Horrific. It just needs to stop.

Yes, I have. The effects of severe prematurity are profound. An artificial womb would be massively beneficial for premature babies. At the moment a premature child has to be cared for in an incubator which is no replacement for the womb.

what needs to stop?

Agree completely

Exactly the ‘study’ I mentioned up thread. Way back when I first read it I thought she was unhinged. Still do.

If it works then it literally can offer what nature can.

We know how to do it. That was worked out a long time ago.

it just can’t be replicated in an artificial environment.

also what about the knock on effects of breastfeeding? Would we all just think sod it and formula feed?

speaking of medicine, would obstetrics go the way of breastfeeding- so few people give birth, that we lose the medical knowledge of how to care for a pregnant woman? Would natural/accidental pregnancies be allowed to come to term?

But babies actually learn their mother’s voice from in the womb, they wouldn’t have the same connection to her, they wouldn’t learn to be comforted by her movement and the sound of her heartbeat. They might be grown and alive in an artificial environment but we’d have no way of knowing the impact on their brain development and attachment. It would be completely unethical to experiment on babies in this way.

might be ways around this. Recording mother's heart beat, voice, etc.

This is such a good point. This would only benefit (as far as you can call it that) affluent women with planned pregnancies.
So does the OP think only these women deserve to be "liberated"?

The rest of us just have to do it the old fashioned way because we didn't put a request in for an artificial womb early enough?

An artificial womb would surely be an incubator by any other name. And what about the impact on the baby - we know far more about the impact of pre-birth trauma, and the importance of the babies connection to their mum in the womb, hearing her heartbeat, voice etc and the importance of attachment pre-birth into the fourth trimester. Babies aren’t a product to be manufactured independently of their mothers womb - what a fucking horror story.

I think its a fantastic thing. No sickness. No losing your figure. No tiredness. Can work right up till the baby is ready. No miscarriage. Nothing going wrong. No eclampsia. You can go and see it develop.

What happens with abortion? If a woman doesn't want to carry a baby will she be obligated to have it transferred to an artificial womb?

Pod generation on Netflix.
bizarre!