The purpose of this paper is to briefly describe the historical and recent advancements as well as to examine the ethical merit of the development of artificial wombs. Historically, the topic of an artificial womb extends far before Aldous Huxley penned the “Brave New Word”. In the 16th century, building upon Plato’s description of a “homunculus” – the creation of a fully formed, miniature man - Paracelsus introduced the following recipe: “Let the semen of a man putrefy by itself in a sealed cucurbite with the highest putrefaction of the venter equinus [horse manure] for forty days, or until it begins at last to live, move, and be agitated, which can easily be seen…If now, after this, it be everyday nourished and fed cautiously and prudently
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Further, some arguments focused on the welfare of the “ecogenic” children – arguing that use of artificial wombs would be detrimental in the physiological and psychological development of children while others claimed that ectogenesis would be beneficial to children as it would replace flawed “incubators” (gestating mothers) with perfect machines. Admittedly, the arguments and controversy that surrounded ectogenesis in the 1920s have changed little over time – even as the reality of an artificial womb becomes …show more content…
For example, in the 1950s and 1960s, Westin studied human fetuses which he was able to keep alive between 5-12 hours by perfusion of the umbilical vein (Westin). This allowed for rapid advancements made towards the short term maintenance of stable blood oxygen levels of lambs attached to artificial placentas (Callaghan, 10) however, it should be noted that long term viability was not attainable (lambs typically survived > 8 hours; but the longest survivor was 19 hours) In the 1980s, Thomas Schaffer, a neonatal physiologist, discovered the association and contribution of underdeveloped lungs in prematurely born babies to their untimely death. Schaffer hypothesized that premature neonates would potentially survive longer if they were able to breathe oxygenated liquid and as a result, attempted to develop an artificial amniotic fluid which would help neonates survive longer.12 This hypothesis was assessed during a clinical trial In 1996 wherein 13 premature infants (born after 22-34 weeks) with severe breathing difficulties were administered various oxygenated liquid treatments.3 While this study was purely observational and the sample size was only 13, results were somewhat encouraging: 6 of
Further, some arguments focused on the welfare of the “ecogenic” children – arguing that use of artificial wombs would be detrimental in the physiological and psychological development of children while others claimed that ectogenesis would be beneficial to children as it would replace flawed “incubators” (gestating mothers) with perfect machines. Admittedly, the arguments and controversy that surrounded ectogenesis in the 1920s have changed little over time – even as the reality of an artificial womb becomes …show more content…
For example, in the 1950s and 1960s, Westin studied human fetuses which he was able to keep alive between 5-12 hours by perfusion of the umbilical vein (Westin). This allowed for rapid advancements made towards the short term maintenance of stable blood oxygen levels of lambs attached to artificial placentas (Callaghan, 10) however, it should be noted that long term viability was not attainable (lambs typically survived > 8 hours; but the longest survivor was 19 hours) In the 1980s, Thomas Schaffer, a neonatal physiologist, discovered the association and contribution of underdeveloped lungs in prematurely born babies to their untimely death. Schaffer hypothesized that premature neonates would potentially survive longer if they were able to breathe oxygenated liquid and as a result, attempted to develop an artificial amniotic fluid which would help neonates survive longer.12 This hypothesis was assessed during a clinical trial In 1996 wherein 13 premature infants (born after 22-34 weeks) with severe breathing difficulties were administered various oxygenated liquid treatments.3 While this study was purely observational and the sample size was only 13, results were somewhat encouraging: 6 of