Among them: Who would have access to the treatment? How would nursing care change? What would be a child’s birthday: the day they were put in the bag or the day they were removed from it?īut the way that artificial wombs are spoken of suggests this technology-which has so far only been used with lambs-is on the cusp of changing everything about human connection and family and gender roles. While the line between science fiction and reality is not, in this case, ambiguous, there are ethical and practical questions about the development of artificial wombs, as there are with every groundbreaking medical treatment. The letter writer, a physician, wrote at length of his concerns, including his fear that “it might replace the role of a woman in natural pregnancy.” (The authors of the study later replied, “It is not possible to use this technology to supplant the role of women in natural pregnancy.”) It was a response to a study on the successful use of an artificial womb with premature lambs.
These anxieties are preventing us from evaluating artificial wombs as they are actually being conceived.Ī more buttoned-up version of this sentiment was expressed in a recent letter to the editors of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
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