Cutting-edge research around the world will soon launch a new era in human procreation – a world in which embryos can be ‘brought to term’ in artificial wombs, replacing 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.
Scientists predict the research could produce an animal womb by 2020, and a human model by early 2030s.
The article does indicate some predictably luddite handwringing over the effects of this technology, but I honestly can’t see it as anything from an unqualified good, from simplifying legal battles involving surrogacy to helping couples who can’t bring a child to term and even fundamentally eliminating the risk of death from childbearing.
Just as some people now choose to have a natural childbirth, even with artificial womb technology I imagine there will still be plenty of people wishing the traditional experience as well.
At least for the first time, until they realize what a bum deal evolution has handed human women. Damn giant homo sapien heads…