Artificial Womb Facility Concept Imagines Producing 30,000 Babies A Year

Imagine a future where pregnancy occurs outside the body and in an incubator where parents can watch their baby grow from an embryo into an infant in real time.

The project, called EctoLife, takes the pains and uncertainty of childbirth and places them in an artificial womb that promises a pregnancy term so easy you won’t even feel anything.

At least that is what biotechnologist and science communicator Hashem Al-Ghaili visualizes, a future where the delivery process takes place in a facility instead of a mother’s belly. Al-Ghaili based the concept on research work conducted on the subject from as far back as the 1950s.

EctoLife potentially seeks to help countries with declining birth rates, such as Japan, Bulgaria, South Korea, and many others.

Each fertilized egg is placed in an incubator that stimulates the womb of a woman and could potentially create an environment that encourages the embryo to grow and thrive within it.

The concept proposes to host 75 highly equipped labs and 400 growth pods and deliver 30,000 infants each year.

With the world’s population reaching its peak, scientists predict it is set to only decline from here on out. As such, there might actually be a need for facilities like EctoLife that are a surefire way for parents to have a healthy newborn after nine months.

Or potentially, more than that. See, the project looks into the option of letting the baby “bake in the oven” for a bit longer so that they might come out much more developed than newborns naturally do. This is because human babies are underdeveloped at the end of the term compared to other animal infants.

The reason behind this is that a fully grown brain is too wide for the female birthing canal, and human tots must be ejected out of the womb before their heads can grow to that size.

While toying with life might seem like a cold way to start a family, EctoLife looks at the possibility of allowing parents to don haptic suits and VR goggles to feel and see their tykes whenever they want. They can even talk and play Brahms to the infant via speakers within the pods.

It’s also highly plausible that not everyone will have the time to go down and see their baby every day. If that’s the case, you could either have it grow in your own house or employ an AI nanny designed by Chinese scientists to look after it instead.
 
Growing an infant either by your bedside or on a “farm” might seem unnatural. Still, for many women out there who crave the idea of motherhood but cannot bear to carry and deliver a baby, this might be the best solution to getting a child that is genetically yours.

Al-Ghaili proposes that the concept could one day stand alongside other methods of conceiving, including IVF, insemination, embryo selection, and genetic engineering.
 
However, that day is still far, far, far into the future. And as we await that day to come, take a look at the video below that goes in-depth on what that future might look like.

 
 
 
[via Hashem Al-Ghaili, video and images featured with permission]