CAN MECHANICAL WOMBS REPLACE MOTHERS? The continuing development of reproductive biotechnology has brought us to a precipice in moral understanding. What began with attempts to treat infertility, provide neonatal therapeutics, and predict diseases via genetic screening has burgeoned into a global industry of commercial surrogacy complete with the impending reality of complete ectogenesis -the gestation of human babies entirely outside a human womb - a human baby developed from conception to “birth” in a laboratory. In a moment of unnerving coincidental irony, or a shocking level of hubris, researchers have named this artificial womb technology “ex vivo uterine environment” or EVE. What does that mean for us?
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