A 40-week process

where you developed from a single cell

to fully formed human baby.

All within your mother's womb.

Now, imagine you were born

in an artificial womb.

A cutting edge device,

perfectly replicating, and even improving

on the environment of the womb.

What if we were able to use

these artificial wombs to give birth,

and brought babies into the world

with advanced technology?

You probably don't remember your

formative months in the womb,

but it's safe to say you were born

from a good old-fashioned womb.

Now, what if you were born

from a state of the art artificial womb?

Well, it could give a fetus

a fully optimized environment

in which to develop,

with a carefully calculated formula for

hormone and nutrient needs.

And the fetus would not be exposed to

any infectious diseases.

Artificial wombs would allow gay male couples

and single men the opportunity to have a baby

without the need for a human surrogate.

They would also give transgender women,

women born without a uterus,

and those who have lost their uterus

due to medical conditions or injuries,

a chance to have children.

But how would this benefit

the little tykes themselves?

Much of the research based around

the advancement of artificial wombs

is on the care of premature babies.

In 2017, an experiment was performed

by fetal surgeon Dr. Alan Flake

of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

using an amniotic sac,

aka a "biobag."

This was used to provide lamb fetuses,

placed in a sterile fluid,

with a protein and nutrient-rich blood supply.

The experiment simulated the

23rd to the 27th week of a human pregnancy.

After they were removed from the biobags,

the lambs grew up just as a

traditionally born lamb would.

On the other hand,

we have to wonder if there could be

any downsides to using artificial wombs.

If artificial womb births were to

become available and affordable,

society would be bombarded by debates.

Ethics, science, technology, politics, religion,

societal structure and economics

would all be stirred together into

one big punch bowl of non-stop disputes.

According to Detroit Medical Center

neonatologist Dr. Sanjay Chawla,

an artificial womb can't replace

the maternal influences of labor,

or the placental influence of hormones

and biochemical signals.

On top of that, if artificial wombs

were used the wrong way,

or for the wrong reasons,

we could be looking at a dystopian nightmare.

It could lead to things like “baby factories,”

where children are manufactured and sold.

A serious rift could occur in our society as the

number of artificial womb children increases.

The debate could include questions like,

is it fair to apply the same standards to kids

who come from a mother's womb as we do

to those born from perfected, artificial wombs?

Or what if something goes wrong

during the gestation period?

And would the wealthy bypass the risks

associated with natural wombs

and just use the artificial ones?

It's definitely a lot to think about.

Research is already underway

at the Eindhoven University of Technology.

The University is developing a way

to provide babies with artificial incubators

Ones that could help simulate

the biological conditions of a womb.

This way, the babies could receive

nutrients and oxygen via an artificial placenta

connected to an umbilical cord.

If all goes according to plan,

the research will continue for five years,

and then human babies will be involved.

In the artificial womb environment,

they will have everything around them

that they would have in a natural womb.

Whatever happens,

it's sure to ruffle a few feathers.

But if we develop this technology

as a means to help premature infants survive,

the idea becomes a noble one.

It makes you think about what else

we could create artificially.

Maybe one day, we'll need to

construct an artificial planet

- to house humanity after

we've exhausted the Earth.