Slashdot Mirror
Artificial Wombs In the Near Future?
New submitter DaemonDan writes "The first successful pregnancy by IVF was accomplished over 50 years ago, essentially creating a multi-billion dollar industry. Many scientists are trying to take it one step farther with a 100% test tube baby brought to term in an artificial womb. 'Cornell University's Dr. Hung-Ching Liu has engineered endometrial tissues by prompting cells to grow in an artificial uterus. When Liu introduced a mouse embryo into the lab-created uterine lining, "It successfully implanted and grew healthy," she said in this New Atlantis Magazine article. Scientists predict the research could produce an animal womb by 2020, and a human model by early 2030s.' The author of the article seems to believe that birth via artificial wombs could become the new norm, but is it really feasible, desirable or even affordable for the majority of Earth's population?"
As long as they don't all have the surname "Fett"...
"Artificial Womb" sounds so awkward. How about axlotl tank?
Get off my lawn.
Forget the artificial womb, who's working on an artificial vagina?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Indeed. It'd be nice not to worry about premature birth, C sections(required or elective), split perineums, or even just carrying a watermelon around for months.
Even better, no longer needed to have a uterine lining shed every month. Clone it, freeze the sample for later, and then burn that fucker out. No "red tides", no accidental pregnancy, reduced cancer risks. Awesome.
who's working on an artificial vagina?
Farmers use them to collect sperm for artificial insemination.
When it comes to human use though, I hear a real one is better. Of course this being "news for nerds" nobody reading this has ever seen a real one since the day we were born. From the looks of things, Slashdotters born 50 years from now will go their whole lives never seeing one.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Let's do Alphas. I'm sure glad I'm not an Epsilon.
No, they could. But Apple had all the design patents on them
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
Is there a baby shortage we should be concerned about?
No, but the lead times are terrible. If this is successful, you could
A) Order a baby, and if you don't care about it having your genes, get one tomorrow.
or B)Special order one of your own and wait 9 months without the hassle in-between.
Really, with places like Amazon having a very good handle on expected demand and logistics, we could see babies available via Prime shipping by 2050.
A Womb with a view.
I hope this caused some synapses to fire.
We humans have moved most of our digestive system into technology, why not this too?
I'm not sure what restaurants you eat out at, but remind me never to have dinner at your place.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Reads? Like the TV Guide?
There is no compelling contextual evidence for the age or gender of the original poster. For all we know, sexconker might very well be a young girl with a geeky streak who happens to like gourmet ice cream and pretty boys with good pipes. I sang baritone in school. An i've been told i clean up well. Anyone in SF bay area interested in starting an a Capella group? We can call ourselves "Super Cache", or maybe go with "Beowulf". What kind of name is likely to attract the attention of the geek girl among /.ers? I know! "The GNU Directions"!
========== "Hello World" in my programming language of choice: ATG - LET THERE BE LIFE - TAG ==========
First successful *human* IVF.
The first successful IVF pregnancy & birth was in 1959 - a team at the Worcester Foundation, lead by Dr. Min Chueh Chang, successfully gave birth to a rabbit.
Well, OK, they didn't give birth to a rabbit per se - obviously another rabbit did - but they certainly had a hand in it, as it were...
What part of "a well regulated militia" do you not understand?
Kneel before Zod! Now, lay down before Zod. Now using your lower abdominals, raise your legs and hold on a five count before Zod! One before Zod! Two before Zod!