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The Artificial Womb: A Very Real Controversy
During the 1600’s and 1700’s, around 1200 women died per 100,000 in childbirth.
Around 1900, the number shrunk to only 600. Today, the number of women dying in childbirth
is around 15 per 100,000. Advances in pregnancy and neonatal care, increased understanding of
reproductive science, and the general uptick in healthcare around the world has helped decrease
maternal mortality rates, miscarriages, stillbirths, and other tragedies related to pregnancy.
Today, with the growing interest in the artificial womb (AW), society seems to be headed
towards a future where no child or mother ever dies in a pregnancy related event.
An artificial womb acts just like a real womb but are shaped like a bag. They are sealed-
tight to ensure that no germs enter the bag and potentially harm the fetus inside. Then the AW
would be connected to machines that would help pump fluid and maternal blood into the fetus’s
environment while also providing necessary oxygen and nutrients; all the things a fetus would
need to survive. However, the AW relies off of the fetus’s heart to assist in pumping the
materials and an artificial placenta to regulate the exchange between waste products of the AW
and outside fluids (Bulletti et al., 2011). However, there is no question as to whether they work;
scientists already have proven that it can work reliably. In April of 2017, researchers at the
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia did an AW experiment on a lamb fetus using a bio-bag. It
worked and the lamb gestated in the AW. However, no such experiment has been run on
humans, but that isn’t necessarily something to be fearful of. As Frida Somestein noted in an
article from 2006 “The history of science tells us that impenetrable barriers are only temporary.
It is only a matter of time and research until someone, intentionally or by chance, finds a way to
overcome these obstacles” (Simonstein, 2006). Therefore, the question is not “will it?” but “will
we?” and that is the topic of discussion in today’s article.

Obviously there are huge benefits to an AW. It’s primary benefactor would be women
with health complications. Currently, the earliest a child can be delivered is 22 weeks, however
80% do not survive and 95% of premature babies have major defects, like blindness, deafness,
neurological issues, and problems with organs (Prasad, 2017). However, artificial wombs could
help solve these issues. Artificial wombs could serve as more realistic incubators for premature
babies so they could gestate until they reach full maturity (Bulletti et al., 2011). The health
benefits also extend to women who may have issues with pregnancy. A fair size of the female
population, around 15% use drugs or alcohol during pregnancy. Other women have no wombs,
either from birth defects or disease. And for many women, the burden of in-vitro-fertilization is
too much for them. Yet, AWs could solve these problems. Women who cannot carry or fail at
IVF could have their child gestate in artificial womb, and women who are at high-risk for drug
use or alcohol use during pregnancy could opt to have their child put in the AW. Moreover,
commentators have suggested that AWs could have other benefits outside the realm of neonatal
and female health. Some have suggested it could decrease commercial surrogacy by offering a
safer alternative for all parties with the AW. Others have suggested it could help equalize
parenthood, destroy gender hierarchies, and radically change how we view of private lives. Some
have even argued that when parental roles are equalized, male will no longer be an excuse for
“male dominated boardrooms or political parties” (Sedgwick, 2017). People that are part of the
LGBT group would finally have a way of having offspring and children without turning towards
surrogates. There are also feminist critiques of the artificial womb. Shulamith Firestone, a
feminist writer, was excited, authoring that with the potential for asexual reproduction cloning
materials and stem cells could finally free men from their dependence of women. Other feminist
critics have argued that it could free women from the tyranny of their reproductive biology.
There also happens to be ramification of abortion if AWs were to be mass produced. Roe
v. Wade, Planned Parenthood v. Danforth, and Colautti v. Franklin, all cases which deal with
the legal issue of abortion all define viability of a fetus the point at which a fetus can survive
outside of the womb, even by artificial means. If AWs were able to be used extensively, it would
justify more and more legislatures in restricting access to abortion by justifying that a fetus is
viable and should not be terminated.
This leads me into the drawbacks of an AW society. Firstly, it could be used to curtail a
woman’s 14th Amendment right to continue or terminate pregnancy as legislatures could argue
that women should have to transfer fetuses over to AWs before terminating pregnancy. And
while no one will contest the health benefits of an artificial womb, many will rail against it for its
social implications. An area of major concern is that of the parent-child relationship. Research
has shown the importance of maternal care and interaction between babies and parents,
especially mothers, yet, there is a fear that an AW would create feelings of detachment between
parents and children which would hurt the all important relationship (Landau, 2007). That
detachment might only be furthered in the idea that while a woman works at her job, the child
grows in a bag in a hospital which completely annihilated the relationship that mother and child
have, having been inseparable literally for 9 months. Even feminists are concerned with artificial
wombs. Some feminists believe that AWs would only marginalize women more than they
believe they are today by removing the most defining characteristic of a woman. What is most
telling, however, is actual polling. A study in Israel revealed that majority of people did not want
to see an artificial womb developed, in fact, women were less supportive of AWs overall when
compared to male respondents.

Thus, we are left with the question: Should society use artificial wombs? The answer is
hard and complicated but can best be summarized with “yes, but with limits”. Obviously, saving
a mother’s life with an artificial womb is a must in an egalitarian society such as ours and
making sure that premature infants can survive is necessary. We should have artificial wombs for
their health benefits but only sparingly; we should not have an “artificial womb society”. Women
still are the symbols of fertility and parenthood which disrupt societal norms. Mass usage of
AWs will surely detach parents and children even more than are today, especially with the
advent of technology. The more we move towards a mass production of AWs the farther we
move away from what we as humans need in our lives. I reject both feminist arguments, for and
against the artificial womb, as being too far a stretch from reality. As to the legal ramifications, it
is important that, either through jurisprudence or through statutes, that we make sure that women
still have access to their constitutional right to abortion, as a matter of law even with the medical
use of artificial wombs.

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The Artificial Womb: A Very Real Controversy

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia did an AW experiment on a lamb fetus using a bio-bag. It

we?” and that is the topic of discussion in today’s article.

viable and should not be terminated.

compared to male respondents.

use of artificial wombs.

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