Glosswitch on Artificial Wombs

[TheWeeWitch]

"In this sense, the arrival of the artificial womb means neither women’s end nor our liberation. It’s just another twist in the story of our exploitation and our resistance. I don’t think the future’s any darker than the present. It’s understanding what is done to us, and by whom, that enables us to see the light."

👏
Thank you Glosswitch.

www.newstatesman.com/politics/feminism/2017/05/artificial-wombs-are-only-three-years-away-how-scared-should-women-be

Completely agree that pregnancy is far far too complex to reproduce artifically (see what I did there)
but, the drive to do it even in part always makes me wonder about assisted conception generally. I know it's not a popular view and at an individual level I am sorry for people who are infertile and understand why they would pursue IVF or whatever. But at a societal level I question why we would pour resources (including the research effort) into this when the beneficiaries are actually otherwise healthy. If we haven't cracked malaria and can't seem to protect people from the diseases of affluence in the North, is it a good use of money and human effort?
Of course if it is all driven by agriculture that would make sense, but this is the first time I've come across that idea.

" In fact the human aspect could provide a useful fake news cover, and good PR, for the real story of 'farming practices to become even more inhumane' (if I was being cynical). "
Very good point.. And sadly not very cynical at all, just realistic.

The article's you posted are dated they were before the current experiments with the lambs they just conducted proving gestation is possible and can be repeated outside a women's body all they need to do is merge the artificial uterus and the artificial womb together and this will happen a lot faster then you think

The mouse experiments they conducted did not include an artificial womb yet but they came very close to bringing miece to full term using IVF if you think artificial wombs are not going to happen or are a long time away you must be foolish the success of the lamb artificial wombs have just increased the funding to artificial wombs at an alarming rate

You must also understand that science is never stagnant it is always evolving pregnancy in itself is a biological process it isn't magical or a miracle it will be figured out and replicated the lamb experiments just proved that the female body isn't necessary for gestation there isn't some connection needed for a fetus to continue growing in order for you to be updated you need to quote current article's donkeyskin don't hold your breath it was believed a couple of years ago that the womb was too complex to replicate but here we are it is now artificial so will the so called complicated first few weeks in the artificial uterus will be figured out

The female body may not be needed for gestation, but it is needed to produce eggs.
Its not that the womb is complicated; but the different stages of development are. the ovaries produce hormones that help the fetus develop.
Cloning was once thought to be a simple matter. But in real life, cloned animals suffer from bad health and die young.

Eggs can be made artificially by the way they don't need women to make them just stem cells and they have a few sources to extract the material to make them from. the different stages of the womb is going to be further studied then replicated nothing is too magical for scientist to figure out you must understand that when scientist were trying to clone they had limited knowledge and technology just because it failed in the past doesn't mean it will fail in the future but as we go on in the future science and technology now is starting to take off and produce things at a faster rate the article's that are now popping up are a result of understanding that with increased funding the timeline to a finished product declines in my own personal opinion artificial wombs should already exist but lacked funding and interest you should be happy science is helping women with the burden of pregnancy

Why should we be happy?

Please mansplain that aspect of this to the world.

Jamescv Then good luck doing the shit work when you have achieved your dearest wish and eradicated women.

Also, some basic punctuation would be helpful if you think you can manage it. Thanks.

Maybe science should change men before putting all the responsibility for parenting and loving on to them. They struggle with 50%.

Eggs can be made artificially by the way they don't need women to make them just stem cells

Eggs (and sperm for that matter) are more complex than that - unless you wish to create a clone (of the person who donated the stem cell). The egg has undergone meiosis with cross-over recombination occurring between the pairs of each chromosome prior to the last cell division. Not so easy.

Excuse me English is not my first language, now men can make eggs artificially and then trade among each other or with women so they do not produce clones. men contain the x and y chromosome and sperm decides gender so men can trade they artificial eggs and then use they own sperm to fertilize it resulting in a daughter or son having the DNA of two people instead of one.i don't understand why everyone is so hostile here science is trying to help women with all the complications of pregnancy from death,premature birth, stillborns and giving you the opportunity to to continue with your career's and not sacrifice your Bodies for reproduction it is absolute freedom.

Do you have any links to the creation of artificial eggs, because I keep relatively well up on stuff (OK... I read New Scientist) and have never heard of this.

It certainly would be fantastic, as egg donation, unlike sperm donation, is hugely invasive and dangerous for the woman doing it.

Excuse me English is not my first language

No need to apologise, its not mine either.

men can make eggs artificially I don't know if that is true - I really doubt it. In order to do so, I'd imagine you would need to manipulate the chromosomes in a normal cell - by which I mean diploid - and find a cell in the right chromosomal stage - then somehow move one set of the paired chromosomes into each half of the nucleus and persuade the cell to divide along the necessary line of division - to make the daughter cells haploid - even then your missing out on the cross-over stage. Honesty there is no end to the technical obstacles to be over-come......not to mention the ethical dimensions.

I think that it's a reasonable fear to think that some men might happily eradicate women if they weren't needed for reproduction, given how badly they treat women currently, don't you think?

I don't think that artificial wombs are anywhere near possible, even with a very optimistic interpretation of the recent developments.

Just to add some extra information before I send the article rodents are used as models in medical testing as they genetic, biological and behavior characteristics closely resemble those of humans, and many symptoms of human conditions can be replicated in mice and rats if it works in mice it will work in humans and be perfected in the human trials like every breakthough this was only published about 9 months ago and was a massive breakthrough just like this recent womb. www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/10/17/scientists-make-live-animals-from-artificial-eggs-in-remarkable/

Presumably the cells harvested to generate the stem cells which subsequently became eggs were female to begin with, and not male?

The cells were harvested from the skin of the mouses tail then re-engineered into stem cells then into artificial eggs it does not matter wither the mouse was male or female both male and female DNA can be re-engineered into stem cells which can become anything stem cells do not have gender

Mice are not like humans in all respects. They mostly suffer from sarcomas, not carcinomas as humans do, and many researchers believe their use held back cancer research by decades.

Having read the research article in Nature I'm not sure you're right about that James. They used female cells for both the skin cell samples and the gonadal somatic cells they used to create their combination cells that they called reconstituted ovaries. But I'm not a scientist so perhaps I'm reading it wrongly.

Bloody hell, that is impressive - like they say, it's a long way from doing the same thing in humans, but still, give them a hundred years and who knows where they'll be!

Mice ,pigs and lambs are the very reason why mordern medicine is where it is any biologist and scientist will tell you that now scientist have been successful in taking male skin cells and turning them into artificial eggs but are still working on fertilization that is why it has not been published yet but some research is available but not complete.With regards to using a reconstructed ovary you must understand that in the article it was stated that they are developing an artificial alternative the eggs are created but then have no where to be placed yet in artificial terms they just have artificial eggs.the artificial womb must advance further for them to use it I can tell you right now as a research student that within the next decade artificial eggs both male and female will be viable and the artificial ovaries. what will take about 20 to 30 year's is the womb and what goes on in the early development stage

Well given the potential attachment problems for artificially gestated children, you lads will need to be pretty amazing parents.

With regards to artificial ovaries just last month this happened. www.google.co.za/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/science/2017/may/16/3d-printed-ovaries-allow-infertile-mice-to-give-birth