Science has come a long way. It is now estimated that, in less than 10 years, scientists will develop human embryos in the laboratory using high-tech artificial wombs.
This research will change indefinitely the way we view pregnancy, childbirth and our evolution as the human race.
Doctors at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia are working with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to test artificial uterus and its ability to grow a human embryo within the next two years.
If this research succeeds, there may be another option for couples and individuals who are seeking to bring new life to this world.
A ten-year plan for such clinical trials would determine whether artificial uterus is safe and effective, with the potential to prevent many of the medical complications that may arise during pregnancy and childbirth.
Researchers at the Women and Baby Research Foundation, University of Western Australia and Tohoku University Hospital, Japan, have developed what they call EVE therapy, a device and method that has already incubated healthy lambs in an ex-uterine environment. (EVE) for a period of one week.
This technology is essentially a "high tech amniotic fluid bath combined with an artificial placenta. Put it all together and, with careful maintenance, what you have is an artificial uterus, "says UWE researcher Matt Kemp.
Implementing an artificial uterus in an embryo would allow us to control the environment without restricting women's autonomy, and, as the philosopher Anna Smajdor says, "there are ways to really benefit the fetus itself."
This is an important breakthrough for our pioneering technology and, as the research unfolds, may belong to a biotechnological advancement.
