Ectogenesis
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Ectogenesis (from the Greek ἐκτός, "outside", and genesis) is the growth of an organism in an artificial environment,<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> outside the body in which it would normally be found, such as the growth of an embryo or fetus outside the mother's body, or the growth of bacteria outside the body of a host.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> The term was coined by British scientist J. B. S. Haldane in 1924.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Human embryos and fetusesEdit
Template:Further Ectogenesis of human embryos and fetuses would require an artificial uterus. An artificial uterus would have to be supplied with nutrients and oxygen from some source to nurture the fetus, as well as dispose of waste material. There would likely be a need for an interface between such a supplier, filling this function of the placenta. As a replacement organ, an artificial uterus could be used to assist women with damaged, diseased or removed uteri to allow the fetus to be conceived to term. It also has the potential to move the threshold of fetal viability to a much earlier stage of pregnancy. This would have implications for the ongoing controversy regarding human reproductive rights. Ectogenesis could also be a means by which homosexual, impotent, disabled, and single men and women could have genetic offspring without the use of surrogate pregnancy or a sperm donor, and allow women to have children without going through the pregnancy cycle.<ref name="Moran 2023">Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Synthetic embryoEdit
In 2022, Jacob Hanna and his team at the Weizmann Institute of Science created early "embryo-like structures'" from mice stem cells.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Sample 2022">Template:Cite news</ref> Their research was published by Cell on 1 August 2022. The world's first synthetic embryo does not require sperm, eggs, nor fertilization, and were grown from only embryonic stem cells (ESCs) or also from stem cells other than ESCs.<ref name="Sample 2022" /> The structure had an intestinal tract, early brain, and a beating heart and a placenta with a yolk sac around the embryo.<ref name="Sample 2022" /> The researchers said it could lead to better understanding of organ and tissue development, new sources of cells and tissues for human transplantation,<ref name="Sample 2022" /> although human synthetic embryos are a long ways off.<ref name="Sample 2022" />
Also in August 2022, a study described how University of Cambridge, alongside the same Weizmann Institute of Science scientists,<ref name="Tarazi et al. 2022"/> created a synthetic embryo with a brain and a beating heart by using stem cells (also some stem cells other than ESCs). No human eggs nor sperm were used. They showed natural-like development and some survived until day 8.5 where early organogenesis, including formation of foundations of a brain, occurs. Scientists hope it can be used to create synthetic human organs for transplantation.<ref name="Amadei et al. 2022">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Brackley 2022">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The embryos grew in vitro and subsequently ex utero in an artificial womb published the year before by the Hanna team in Nature,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and was used in both studies. Potential applications include "uncovering the role of different genes in birth defects or developmental disorders", gaining "direct insight into the origins of a new life", "understand[ing] why some pregnancies fail",<ref name="Brackley 2022"/> and developing sources "of organs and tissues for people who need them".<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The term "synthetic embryo" in the title of the second study was later changed to the alternative term "embryo model".<ref name="Amadei et al. 2022"/>
On 6 September 2023, Nature published research that the Weizmann Institute team created the first complete human day 14 post-implantation embryo models,<ref name="Oldak et al. 2023">Template:Cite journal</ref> using naïve ES cells expanded in special naive conditions developed by the same team in 2021.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> It also uses reprogrammed genetically unmodified naïve stem cells to become any type of body tissue.<ref name="Oldak et al. 2023"/><ref name="Gallagher 2023">Template:Cite news</ref> The embryo model (termed and abbreviated as SEM) mimics all the key structures like a "textbook image" of a human day-14 embryo.<ref name="Oldak et al. 2023"/><ref name="Gallagher 2023"/>
Bioethical considerationsEdit
The development of artificial uteri and ectogenesis raises a few bioethical and legal considerations, and also has important implications for reproductive rights and the abortion debate.<ref name="Moran 2023"/>
Artificial uteri may expand the range of fetal viability, raising questions about the role that fetal viability plays within abortion law.<ref name="Moran 2023"/> For example, within severance theory, abortion rights only include the right to remove the fetus, and do not always extend to the termination of the fetus.<ref name="Moran 2023"/> In the abortion debate, the death of the fetus has historically been considered an unavoidable side effect rather than the primary goal of an abortion.<ref name="Moran 2023"/> If transferring the fetus from a woman's womb to an artificial uterus becomes possible, then the choice to terminate a pregnancy in this way could result in a living child.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Thus, the pregnancy could be aborted at any point, which respects the woman's right to bodily autonomy, without impinging on the moral status of the embryo or fetus.<ref name="Moran 2023"/>
There are theoretical concerns that children who develop in an artificial uterus may lack "some essential bond with their mothers that other children have",<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> a secondary issue to woman's rights over their own body. In the 1970 book The Dialectic of Sex, feminist Shulamith Firestone wrote that differences in biological reproductive roles are a source of gender inequality. Firestone singled out pregnancy and childbirth, making the argument that an artificial womb would free "women from the tyranny of their reproductive biology."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
See alsoEdit
- Amniotic fluid
- Apheresis
- Ectopic pregnancy
- Endometrium
- Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation
- Hemodialysis
- In vitro fertilization
- Liver dialysis
- Placenta
- Tissue engineering
- Total parenteral nutrition
- Uterus