Artificial womb labs attempt to eliminate women from reproduction

by Jacob Fuller

Lauren Dempsey, MS in Biomedicine and Law, RN, FISM News 

Hashem Al-Ghaili, a molecular biologist, filmmaker, writer, and producer in Germany recently released a concept video featuring fully functional artificial womb pods created for human babies.

Al-Ghaili is hopeful that traditional birth is just years away from being replaced by this industrialized, factory-farmed, mass production of children.

The video, “Ectolife: The World’s First Artificial Womb Facility,” shows details of a proposed fetus factory that can incubate up to 30,000 babies per year by utilizing 75 state-of-the-art labs containing up to 400 pods. These pods are designed to replicate the exact conditions of a uterus which would provide the baby with nutrients, oxygen, hormones, and antibodies and will allow each baby to develop in an “infection-free environment.”

Each infant would be connected to a sensor, which would allow the intended parents to continuously monitor vital signs such as heartbeat, blood pressure, temperature, breathing rate, and oxygen levels, as well as physical features and genetic abnormalities. Parents would have the ability to monitor their infants in real time through a phone app, allowing parents to track their babies’ development and growth in the comfort of their own homes.

In an attempt to promote bonding, each pod features a 360-degree camera that allows parents “to explore what it’s like to be in your baby’s place, see what they see and hear what they hear.” Parents can also wear a special suit that is connected to the pod that would allow parents to feel the baby moving in the pod, as well as share this experience with others.

The video states the goal is to “provide you with an intelligent offspring that truly reflects your smart choices.” Parents can opt for an “elite package” which would use gene editing technology that would allow them to edit specific traits, such as eye color, hair color, skin tone, physical strength, height, and intelligence.

Al-Ghaili believes that this replacement of pregnancy and birth is the logical solution to address low sperm count or for women who were born without or no longer have a uterus, and would help infertile couples, he also said that this “could ultimately make miscarriage a thing of the past.”

PLAYING GOD

The truth is there is nothing man can create that could mimic God’s original design for life. Yet, Al-Ghaili paints a picture of a world where pregnancy, birth, and essentially women are replaceable by machines and reduces children to nothing more than a commodity.

Some scientists agree that this is the ideal method for procreation. Dr. Anna Smajdor declares that there is actually a “moral imperative” for creating life outside of the human body.

Smajdor writes that “pregnancy is barbaric,” asserting that the nature of pregnancy and childbirth is pathological, requiring medical intervention, instead of the physiological process that it actually is. However, this is a reflection of modern medicine and its views on pregnancy and childbirth, applying a one-size-fits-all model instead of treating each patient as an individual.

Smajdor says that pregnancy is inherently dangerous, a risk that men do not face, and argues that women should no longer be “unjustly obliged to be the sole risk takers in reproductive enterprise.”

Many advocates are hopeful that creating life via artificial wombs or through uterine transplants could finally force equality between the sexes, but it seems as if it is one more step towards erasing something that is characteristic of biological females.

To date, only women have received uterine transplants. However, scientists are optimistic that this procedure could one day allow biological men to become pregnant, although current research indicates that this is not a possibility.

One study found that when scientists surgically joined a castrated male rat to a female rat, then performed a uterine transplant, most of the babies born from the male rats died.

While modern medicine has the ability to change a person’s physical appearance, there is no scientific advancement that can change biology.

Editor’s Biblical Analysis

I personally see no way around the obvious conclusion here: This is an attempt by men and women to play God and circumvent Yahweh’s designs for life and reproduction, and could lead to disastrous negative consequences.

What these scientists call “barbaric” is the design, plan, and creation of God. Outside of pregnancy, no human life has ever existed, outside of the first man — who God created from the dust (Genesis 2:7) — and the first woman — who God created from the rib of man (Gen. 2:21-22).

The idea that there is a “moral imperative” to create life outside of God’s design is an absurd and oxymoronic claim. The only true morality is the Law of God. Morality, just like life, comes only from God. Therefore, His design is the only true test of moral imperative.

The idea of making the sexes equal by eliminating pregnancy from women is also an attempt to remove humanity from God’s design. Women’s pain in childbearing is a direct result of Eve’s sinful fall in the Garden of Eden.

To the woman He said: ‘I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall befor your husband, And he shall rule over you.’ – Gen. 3:16

In Psalms, David writes in a song of praise about God forming him in his mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13). The miracle of conception, pregnancy, and childbirth should be celebrated. We can rejoice knowing that in God’s perfect wisdom, he created men and women uniquely different, but both in His image. As part of this design, God granted women the unique ability to carry, nurture, and ultimately create human life.

Believers, do not put your faith in modern science and those who wish to circumvent God’s design for mankind. Put your faith and joy in Christ Jesus. Celebrate human life as God designed it to be. And multiply by His design.

Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. – Genesis 1:28

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