Synthetic Wombs

jeffbezoz · 2022-10-13T17:49:09+00:00

On BBC Reel, they have a video on synthetic wombs and how they're testing (animal fetus' at current). They one day hope to grow babies in a lab instead of via a natural womb. What are everyone's thoughts on this?

vivariumvivariumsvivaria · 13/10/2022 18:55

That it's just another step towards me living in a dystopia?

BumbleBee92 · 13/10/2022 18:59

Isn’t this what happened in Brave New World as a weird and awful dystopia? Worrying.

00100001 · 13/10/2022 19:10

Fucking atrocious

sittingonacornflake · 13/10/2022 19:10

Fascinating. Interesting to think of in the context of male v female rights during the reproductive process. It takes the 'my body my choice'argument away and opens up the possibility of men deciding whether a foetus should be aborted.

bloodyeverlastinghell · 13/10/2022 19:20

It is a bit dystopian. I thought they’d done research that there is a maternal fetal bond that develops during pregnancy and helps form the basis of attachment between a baby and their mother. Can a baby be grown in an artificial womb becomes should a baby be grown in an artificial womb?

Original poster

jeffbezoz · 13/10/2022 19:34

bloodyeverlastinghell · 13/10/2022 19:20

It is a bit dystopian. I thought they’d done research that there is a maternal fetal bond that develops during pregnancy and helps form the basis of attachment between a baby and their mother. Can a baby be grown in an artificial womb becomes should a baby be grown in an artificial womb?

Also who "owns" the womb and how will that be regulated? What's the policy? Can a uni lab or government own a baby?

OP posts:

caramac04 · 13/10/2022 19:36

So many ethical issues here but it’s a definite no from me.

PeekabooAtTheZoo · 13/10/2022 19:37

Why do we need more ways to make people? We’re already doing rather a good job of overpopulation! Why does this get funding and why wasn’t that funding spent on sorting out the bloody mess we’ve made of the planet so far? Whose interests are served by this? WTAF?

IggityZiggity · 13/10/2022 19:38

PeekabooAtTheZoo · 13/10/2022 19:37

Why do we need more ways to make people? We’re already doing rather a good job of overpopulation! Why does this get funding and why wasn’t that funding spent on sorting out the bloody mess we’ve made of the planet so far? Whose interests are served by this? WTAF?

This.

MrsTerryPratchett · 13/10/2022 20:11

Bad for babies, bad for women.

VodselForDinner · 13/10/2022 20:16

PeekabooAtTheZoo · 13/10/2022 19:37

Why do we need more ways to make people? We’re already doing rather a good job of overpopulation! Why does this get funding and why wasn’t that funding spent on sorting out the bloody mess we’ve made of the planet so far? Whose interests are served by this? WTAF?

I 100% agree with you.

I take it you’ve chosen not to have children, or else you’d be a hypocrite?

Pumpkinsbeinghitbyfallingapples · 13/10/2022 20:16

I am infertile due to a uterus problem and I still think no fucking way even though it would be a nice solution to my problem.

During the time in the womb is when the mother-child bond starts to occur, surely this could lead to more attachment disorder?

Dyra · 13/10/2022 23:23

You know, I'm going to play devil's advocate.

No more surrogacy. Anyone infertile can have a baby. All you need is donor egg and/or sperm at most. No debilitating morning sickness. No SPD. No haemorrhaging. No mums dying in childbirth. Could also be used to continue to gestate premature babies until they're developed further.

Play recordings of mum's heartbeat, other body sounds, and her voice 24/7. Light, temperature, easily replicated. Maybe even molecules from the food we eat. Hell the parents can visit all they like to talk to and touch baby from the outside for the real thing experience.

I'm far from saying they should be used btw. There is a hell of a moral quandary. Who owns the 'womb'? Could a woman be forced to carry a baby until it can be put into an artificial uterus by the baby's father? Since there will always be a selection process to choose the embryo to implant, does it open a path towards further genetic selection? One day CRISPR? Huge huge ethical issues.

Though I admit I do like the idea of them for extremely premature babies.

TooHotToRamble · 14/10/2022 00:05

I think it sounds great. Pregnancy and childbirth is hideous, very risky, painful, your body is never the same again, to varying degrees, some which significantly affect quality of life. I'd definitely have opted for that had that option been on the table!

And it might have made baby number 2 possible which I couldn't manage due to ill health and meant my DH has not been able to have children at all (would have been baby 2 for me, but baby 1 for him). I'm too old now.

In reality though, it's likely to be an option only available to the rich and does potentially create some very complex ethical questions around who "owns" the foetus and synthetic womb etc etc

Lessofallthisunpleasantness · 14/10/2022 00:07

My daughters would probably love this. Both terrified at the thought of pregnancy and childbirth... I guess I must have put them off.

00100001 · 14/10/2022 07:26

TooHotToRamble · 14/10/2022 00:05

I think it sounds great. Pregnancy and childbirth is hideous, very risky, painful, your body is never the same again, to varying degrees, some which significantly affect quality of life. I'd definitely have opted for that had that option been on the table!

And it might have made baby number 2 possible which I couldn't manage due to ill health and meant my DH has not been able to have children at all (would have been baby 2 for me, but baby 1 for him). I'm too old now.

In reality though, it's likely to be an option only available to the rich and does potentially create some very complex ethical questions around who "owns" the foetus and synthetic womb etc etc

Even though it won't be what is best for your child? You'd have them develop without being connected to the mother, with the constant heartbeat and familiar sounds etc that occur in the womb and create the bond?

Birth is dangerous, yes, but it's a human arrogance to assume we are above Mother Nature. Unfortunately we're not supposed to be as profilicic in birthing as we are these days. Look back 200 years, and ,yes terribly mothers and babies died more often. But we didn't have an over population crisis etc

To divert so far from nature is atrocious.

Like the dude in Jurassic Park said. "Yeah, yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should."

I can't see how it could pass ethical committees. Unless it was used for late term babies in danger of loss of life... But where do you draw the line?

MotherOfCrocodiles · 14/10/2022 07:41

Sounds amazing I would definitely have taken this option

Sunbird24 · 14/10/2022 07:45

You still have to think about how it would get in there in the first place…

Egg collection is no walk in the park for women. There’s also no viable way yet to remove an embryo or foetus from a woman’s uterus without killing it so transfer is not an option.

00100001 · 14/10/2022 08:46

MotherOfCrocodiles · 14/10/2022 07:41

Sounds amazing I would definitely have taken this option

really? you'd want your baby to develop inside an artificial womb in side a lab?

You thin that would be the best option for that child?

alotoftutus · 19/10/2022 08:30

MotherOfCrocodiles · 14/10/2022 07:41

Sounds amazing I would definitely have taken this option

Can I ask why you would prefer an artificial womb over using a surrogate? It's not like a women HAS TO carry her own child anyway.

Midwinterblues · 19/10/2022 08:37

God almighty, everyday we creep closer to dystopia. Brave New World should be required reading for everyone.