Dutch Making Headway On Artificial Womb – IOTW Report

Dutch Making Headway On Artificial Womb

The Guardian

Attempts to create an artificial womb for premature babies have been given a boost by the award of a €2.9m (£2.6m) grant to develop a working prototype for use in clinics.

The model, which is being developed by researchers at the Eindhoven University of Technology, would provide babies with artificial respiration. However, unlike current incubators the artificial womb would be similar to biological conditions, with the baby surrounded by fluids and receiving oxygen and nutrients through an artificial placenta that will connect to their umbilical cord. More

Demonstration of how the baby on a bag design would work. Here 

29 Comments on Dutch Making Headway On Artificial Womb

  1. Elizabeth Chloe Romanis, a lawyer at the University of Manchester who has explored the bioethics of artificial wombs, warned that the technology would raise questions

    “It is clear that the legal and ethical issues emerging from the technology must be talked about now, in advance of the artificial womb becoming a reality,” she said.

    Of course, she did.

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  2. …sorry, but it appears to be the answer to this question…

    “LORETTA: It’s my right as a man.

    JUDITH: Well, why do you want to be Loretta, Stan?

    LORETTA: I want to have babies.

    REG: You want to have babies?!

    LORETTA: It’s every man’s right to have babies if he wants them.

    REG: But… you can’t have babies.

    LORETTA: Don’t you oppress me.

    REG: I’m not oppressing you, Stan. You haven’t got a womb! Where’s the foetus going to gestate?! You going to keep it in a box?!

    LORETTA: crying”

    http://montypython.50webs.com/scripts/Life_of_Brian/8.htm

    https://youtu.be/sFBOQzSk14c

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  3. Something to consider; technology, innovation, and imagination will not stand still, not that we would even want it to. The same ethical questions were asked about the introduction of vaccines, of genetically modified food, even Einstein wrestled with the ramifications of splitting the atom.

    How many millions of premature babies could be helped (saved) by something like this? Giving premies who would normally be born with major health problems, a second chance at a normal gestation period, more time in the womb to properly develop?

    We should not be a species of Luddites, nor should we ignore the ethical consequences of science, but science that can benefit, prolong and enhance life, I’m all for it.

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  4. They estimate 15 million premies will be saved each year. At the end of the video the experts start to speculate that perhaps earlier delivery will become standard practice and that gay couples won’t have to rely on a living, breathing human being to reproduce.

    I tell you, it gives new meaning to the term “Dutch Oven.”

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  5. Oh shut up, Rich, you sanctimonious ass. You know all of us here want preemies to die. (I hope I don’t need to explain to anyone that I’m being sarcastic, except the sanctimonious part).

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  6. Used ethically it could be a good thing. If not, a horror show, and there will be a lot of pressure to use it improperly. Hey, the Chinese invented exploding powder which they only used for fireworks. It was the west that used if for a different purpose and called it gunpowder where it was used for both good and evil purposes.

    My former employer’s center is in Eindhoven and probably has a big hand in this research since the prototype is being built at Eindhoven Uni. Tech. probably in coordination with Maxima Medical Centre in Veldhoven. One of two in s.e. Brabant region of the Netherlands.

    https://www.mmc.nl/english/woman-mother-child-center/ .

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  7. And when the Morlocks no longer have any need for the Eloi, the Eloi will be free.

    (I’m sure the Morlocks will keep feeding them, clothing them, fixing the machines to keep them amused. Those evil, oppressive Morlocks were always pliant, that way.)

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  8. This is some real X-Files stuff. Waiting for a new bill in Congress requiring all ‘bags’ be marked with ‘Must be used by Nov 3, 2020’ and ‘For Democratic Votes ONLY’.

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  9. Brave new world, is where it’s headed.

    Many women will opt for the less painful, less messy route, maybe. My bride gladly went to the well 6 times, and one daughter 3, the other 2, three daughter-in-laws 2 apiece, (so far). What they have done literally awes me, both for the phenomenal fortitude and endurance, no less the miracles produced. If this had existed as an option? Well, I don’t know.

    I have a number of deep concerns:
    – How will children, produced this way be impacted? Will they lack a certain, essential, core human connectivity? After all, a Ziplock full of saline soup, hooked up to both a modified dialysis machine and heartbeat boombox just may not cut it. It certainly seems to pale in comparison to the unmatched intimate relationship between a mother and the infant in her womb.
    – Legally, our culture cannot currently agree on just what and when a baby is. How can we expect it to possess any clearer eyes to deal with products of this new innovation?
    – Militant activists will wield it to further distort and erode the meaning, purpose, and understanding of the truth of Creation GEN 1:26-28
    – Will we see the rise of a new breed of second class citizen, ‘Tanks’ viewed as somehow, “not quite human”, and therefore not endowed of the same rights we are? To become, essentially, generations in a new slave economy?

    Ironically, I have long believed that this type of technology will be necessary, if we are to evolve into a space-faring/colonizing species. It is far more technologically feasible to protect a small freezer of female and male gametes and/or zygotes, from the genetic damaging effects of cosmic radiation, than to adequately protect the entire living sections of an interplanetary ship.

    One thing is certain. New technologies have, throughout their long march, brought both great good, and great harm. We have always adapted, and will continue to do so. Let’s hope we can do better than we have.

    TWD

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  10. This We Defend, it sounds like you are putting the cart before the horse. The way I read the article, the goal here is not to create a substitute womb where babies are gestated from inception to birth sans a mother, but to provide a safe haven for already premature babies, babies that were already created and partially gestated the old fashion way.

    From the article;

    “the artificial womb will not simply be a plastic biobag, but will recreate the experience of being in the womb – including the sound of the mother’s heartbeat.

    “When they are in this environment, they just feel, and see, and smell, and hear the same sounds as when they are in the womb of the mother, he said.”

    Given the alternatives that premies face now, the opportunity to go back into a womb, even an artificial womb,to finish developing, this would be huge.

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  11. Rich, not really. Simply acknowledging the camel’s nose under the flap.

    While taking some artistic leeway in my description, the point remains the same: artificial is just that. Artificial. Given the incredible physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual complexity inherent within a human being, we are dancing on uncertain ice if we think that there will be no significant developmental issues to contend with.

    As I pointed out, this technology has been coming for a long time, and is inevitable. One of my grandchildren was premature. I’m not at all adverse to using viable technology for helping these families. Nonetheless, the creators’ intent, of this technology, is meaningless compared to where it will assuredly go.

    Societally, we’d best do a better job of looking down the road than we have managed to do in the past.

    TWD

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  12. @Antidote

    “You bore me, Rich.”

    And yet you keeping reading my comments, how funny. Do you have anything at all to contribute on the topic here or are you just a little ankle bitter poodle who has no real opinions worthy of sharing?

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  13. How about this?

    How long until someone produces an embryo that’s been tweaked to have anencephaly, specifically to be grown in this device for use in organ harvesting?

    Next question: Given the enormous shortage in supply of organs for donation/transplantation, might this actually be an ethical solution?

    (And yes, I actually am a doctor. Pathologist)

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