External Pregnancy: Reproduction in the Technological Age
A Speculative Future Imagined with AI
The use of technology in aiding the birthing process is nothing new. However, treatments which bring conception outside of the body, such as IVF, is a new phenomenon which has become increasingly common do to issues ranging from poor fertility to surrogacy in the modern era.
In 2017 scientists successfully grew the first lamb outside the body of an animal in an artificial womb with the intention of helping premature babies to term outside of the uterus.
The latest gene editing technology called CRISPR, takes these methods one step further. With this new tech, potential parents now will have the option to spare their child grievances from any defects which could cause damage later in life such as diseases and allergies. This also has the potential to be used to give their child other non-life threatening alterations based on societies desirable traits. Will these “designer” babies be the future of our species?
With women increasingly gaining autonomy over their bodies and life path, a desire to follow careers, maintain body image and gain independence has become common. Birth rates have dropped to new lows and are decreasing with each passing year. With women finding a growing sense of success, many, some of which do not have any issues with fertility, are beginning to look to technology to maintain their lifestyles.
