In nine months, a fertilized egg will grow into a baby weighing around 7 pounds, and the mother
will experience the marvel of life unfolding inside her. They may also feel sick, throw up, have
trouble breathing, and have pain in their backs and other areas. What if there was no longer a
need for anybody to go through pregnancy and labor because of technological advancements?
Even when everything goes well throughout a pregnancy and birth, the mother's body and mind
might be permanently altered.1
Infants born as early as 21 weeks into a healthy pregnancy have survived owing to incubators,
which keep them warm and secure until their bodies are ready for life outside the neonatal
intensive care unit (NICU). As for the other end, In vitro fertilization (IVF) embryos are
normally cultivated in the lab for a few days prior to implantation. Embryos have been produced
in vitro for up to two weeks (and could possibly go longer) by the scientific community.
Some researchers believe we may take this a giant leap further by developing entirely "artificial
wombs" that replicate the uterus's conditions from fertilization through birth. Not only would
"ectogenesis," the hypothetical process of growing a fetus outside the body, reduce the major
health hazards associated with pregnancy and delivery, but it would also make biological
reproduction open to persons for whom it is today difficult or impossible.2Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) has also started their work on clinical trials for the artificial womb.3
An artificial womb would allow a woman who lost her uterus to cancer to have a baby without
resorting to the morally dubious practice of using a human surrogate. In 2017, scientists from the
Philadelphia Children's Hospital, Pennsylvania, announced that life could be maintained inside
of a biobag, an artificial womb.4 The group showed that lamb embryos may successfully develop
within the simulated uterus. These were born prematurely but were generally healthy since they
had grown without the usual difficulties. They came up with an oxygenator that could be
attached to the umbilical cord of a lamb, functioning as a substitute placenta and removing
carbon dioxide while delivering nourishment. The pounding of the fetus's heart is responsible for
pumping blood, exactly as it would be in utero. The lamb, like a human embryo, breathes and
eats fluid from the bag, which mimics the amniotic sac. Partial ectogenesis had already occurred
by the time the foetuses were transferred from the mother's womb. Laboratory-made amniotic
fluid and oxygenation via an oxygenator attached to the foetal umbilical cord are provided by
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artificial womb technology to simulate the conditions inside a natural womb. The method is
effective because it recreates the circumstances within the uterus as if the baby had never been
born. In contrast, critical care units rely on artificial conditions to keep patients alive. Instead of
aiding in a newborn rescue, artificial womb technology is meant to take over for the mother's
womb.
The potential advantages and risks to the fetus, parents, and society of artificial womb
technology are certain to spark ethical discussion. There are additional ethical and legal
considerations about the fetus's status and the language that should be used to describe it. The
term "gestateling" has been proposed to describe the item developed in a synthetic uterus.
Then, in August of 2022, scientists at Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science used stem cells
from mice to make the first synthetic embryos.5
In the same month, researchers at the University
of Cambridge employed stem cells to develop a fully functional synthetic embryo.6
Ectogenesis may revolutionize reproductive work and lessen reproductive dangers. It may make
it possible for persons with uteruses to have children in the same safe, secure, and bodilyautonomous manner as cisgender males. Ectogenesis, which bypasses normal gestation, might
provide a level playing field for individuals of all sexes and genders, especially gay people who
want to have children but don't want to depend on the ethically problematic option of surrogacy.
Instead of being privatized, which might further entrench social and economic inequities, safe
and efficient ectogenesis could lead to a more successful and fair society. However, progress in
ectogenesis has the potential to drastically undermine abortion legislation across the globe,
threatening the right of women and persons with wombs to obtain safe and legal abortion.
Cultural ethical concerns raised by this technology, however, may be substantial. When women
no longer have to have children through pregnancy, how will society react? There is a strong
psychological and biological bond between many pregnant mothers and their unborn child.
Furthermore, the mother-child relationship may be altered by the lack of a human pregnancy,
which may affect epigenetic processes. Many adoptive families think that pregnancy is not
necessary for the child's healthy growth or the formation of a strong link with their parents.
Furthermore, our already strained healthcare system would be responsible for the medical
upkeep of these embryos in an artificial placenta. Does health insurance need to cover this?
Regulators, politicians, doctors, scientists, religious scholars, and concerned citizens should also
think carefully about the '14-day rule,' which states that human embryos created in a lab cannot
develop beyond the point at which the primitive streak, a band of cells that forms and is
considered a precursor to the neural tube and nervous system, first appears in the embryo.
Neither study reported in Nature kept its synthetic embryos for more than 14 days because of
respect for this guideline.4
One major ethical problem with early human embryological research is the killing of a typical
human embryo. This problem may be circumvented by using stem cell lines or adult cells instead
of sperm and eggs. Embryos that develop in the womb for fewer than 25 weeks are at risk of
significant, even fatal complications. The Nature ectogenesis paper, together with a recent work
on improving the health and development of preterm sheep foetuses in an artificial womb, may
provide light on the challenges of caring for early human foetuses.4 Combining the two
technologies (i.e., creating human blastocyts from skin cells or stem cell lines and the artificial
placenta) raises serious ethical concerns for scientists. Attempting to carry a human embryo to
term in a laboratory lays the groundwork for a paradigm shift in human reproduction.
Due of the ambiguity surrounding ectogenesis, the World Health Organization (WHO) should
form a committee to investigate the topic, determine whether or not research restrictions should
be placed on the field, and provide policy recommendations. Perhaps, for the time being,
researchers should limit their efforts to ectogenesis's application in treating preterm foetuses and
not attempt to produce a fully functioning artificial placenta.                                                                                            Translate Turkish