Young Women's Wellness

        Pregnancy has always been a struggle for many women. Not only do lots of women experience physical symptoms, like nausea, stomach pain, mood swings, and other medical complications, but they also face societal and ethical challenges. For instance, women who are pregnant may experience a lack of understanding due to the stigma around pregnancy or personal issues like body image. Some women, like those who face unexpected pregnancies, sometimes also have to face ethical dilemmas, like abortion. 

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        There are so many challenges to pregnancy, both medically and socially. But this situation didn’t go unnoticed. Lots of discussions have taken place, and one possible way to reduce, if not eliminate, the complications of pregnancy is to utilize an artificial womb. What if we had a machine that could grow babies inside it, and act like a womb? We could avoid almost all the physical and social issues of pregnancy, plus lots of benefits. For instance, artificial wombs can lift a lot of the responsibility a woman faces while carrying a child, which helps the parents to have equal responsibility in parenthood right from the beginning. Artificial wombs could also help people who are struggling with infertility, like those with endometriosis. But what about the technical, ethical, and legal issues we must face and answer?

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        Some of these puzzling questions include ones like, “how would this new technology affect a women’s right to end a pregnancy?” or questions like “what’s a baby? What’s a fetus?” that while aren’t clearly defined, are still a huge part in creating a usable and ethical artificial womb. An example of a technical problem we might face is the fact that to use an artificial womb, the baby has to be surgically removed, which may bring complications.

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        Today, artificial wombs can help premature babies (babies that are born too early) survive by providing an environment for them to finish growing. The FDA’s (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) EXTEND program has already conducted testing on lambs in artificial wombs, yielding very promising results. While it would be incredibly difficult and take a lot of time, it is possible that in the far future, babies will be able to complete their entire development before birth in an artificial womb!​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​