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What if technology could eliminate the need for anyone to go through pregnancy and childbirth to have a baby? This article is an installment of Future Explored, a weekly guide to world-changing technology. You can get stories like this one straight to your inbox every Thursday morning by subscribing here. It takes nine months for a fertilized egg to develop into a roughly 7-pound baby, and during that time, the person carrying the baby gets to feel the miracle of life growing inside them. They can also expect to experience a slew of unpleasant side effects, from nausea and vomiting...

A “synthetic womb” is what is lately on the agenda of tech billionaires around the globe as they seek out a ways to set aside natural birth entirely. A look into a mind of these individuals do reveal quite curious stances.Possibility of replacing natural birth with synthetic wombs is a matter of discussion among several prominent tech entrepreneurs arguing that such technology would remove the “burden” of pregnancy and allow women to work more. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s fellow tech leaders came up with one solution for declining birth rates, after Muskwarned on Tuesday that society “should be...

Quivering with life, the developing mice moved ever-so-slightly in their vials. Just a few days since they were fertilized, the rodent embryos were minuscule—smaller than an Aspirin tablet—but their existence a is monumental feat: they developed in an artificial uterus, a first in early mammalian science and a big step in improving scientists’ understanding of embryonic development. The research, published today in the journal Nature, describes how the scientists took new embryos and developed them over the course of six days, about a third of the total mouse gestation period, outside of a rodent uterus. “If you give an embryo...

cientifically, it’s called ectogenesis, a term coined by J.B.S. Haldane in 1924. A hugely influential science popularizer, Haldane did for his generation what Carl Sagan did later in the century. He got people thinking and talking about the implications of science and technology on our civilization, and did not shy away from inventing new words in order to do so. Describing ectogenesis as pregnancy occurring in an artificial environment, from fertilization to birth, Haldane predicted that by 2074 this would account for more than 70 percent of human births. His prediction may yet be on target. In discussing the idea...

Artificial wombs will be "reality" within 20 years, according to the London Times. Indeed, 20 years seems a conservative estimate given an earlier report in The Guardian, another UK newspaper, which predicted them for 2008. Discussion of ectogenesis — growing an embryo outside the mother's womb — may sound wildly futuristic. But a few years ago, cloning and genetic modification seemed impossible. A few years before that, the idea of a 66-year-old woman giving birth was absurd; it happened last January. And only last week, British scientists received an official go-ahead to create human embryos from two mothers with no...

Just over eight decades ago, the British scientist J.B.S. Haldane imagined a time in which human pregnancy disappeared. It would be 1951, he prophesied in his essay "Daedalus, or Science and the Future," the birth year of the first ectogenic child. Ectogenesis a word Haldane coined means to be created outside the womb. In Haldane's trenchant vision of the future, having children would become a common and complete out-of-body experience. He was wrong, of course, but maybe only in timing. After years of fits and starts, researchers in the United States, Japan and elsewhere claim to have successfully tested...

<p>Back in January, the abortion rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America held a dinner in Washington to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision.</p> <p>But the event was far from celebratory, with speaker after speaker warning that a woman's right to choose is in grave danger. "For the first time since Roe vs. Wade, anti-choice politicians control the presidency and both houses of Congress," NARAL Pro-Choice America President Kate Michelman said in a typical speech. "The Supreme Court is one vote away from dismantling the right to choose."</p>

<p>Back in January, the abortion rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America held a dinner in Washington to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision.</p> <p>But the event was far from celebratory, with speaker after speaker warning that a woman's right to choose is in grave danger. "For the first time since Roe vs. Wade, anti-choice politicians control the presidency and both houses of Congress," NARAL Pro-Choice America President Kate Michelman said in a typical speech. "The Supreme Court is one vote away from dismantling the right to choose."</p>