EctoLife artificial uterine facility envisions a controversial new way of pregnancy where babies grow in an idealized but completely non-human environment: transparent "growth cabins" are arranged in their hundreds in human infant breeding boxes. First of all, it is clear that this is just a concept at this stage, and it is the creativity of Hashem Al Gelli, a "producer, filmmaker and science communicator" based in Berlin. There is currently no plan to establish an EctoLife facility, which is just a science fiction work that Al-Ghaili infers from the current fertility research situation.
Its purpose is to start a conversation and make arguments for a new parental model, which Al-Ghaili believes will be realized within a few years and become popular within decades.
Al-Ghaili's argument is this: pregnancy is not fun. For mothers, it can be exhausted, painful, disgusting, inconvenient, sometimes very dangerous, and there are various ways that are not ideal for babies. If you smoke during pregnancy, or attend parties, or are stressed out, or have certain illnesses, or are not playing enough Mozart against your bulging belly at all - don't give your child a best start.
Al-Ghaili said science is not far from being able to replicate ideal fertility conditions in a temperature-controlled, non-infected uterus. When a child floats in artificial amniotic fluid, the artificial umbilical cord can provide oxygen and nutrition and is constantly supplemented with precisely prepared hormones, antibodies and growth factor . Baby waste can be removed, run through an bioreactor , and converted into a "stable and sustainable supply of fresh nutrients" through the action of enzymes. The artificial uterus ensures that the little one gets the best brain nutrition, and so does it. Choosing classical music is no problem (maybe you know more than your parents), and of course you can also play the soothing sounds of your parents to start building valuable connections as early as possible.
vital signs will be continuously monitored - just as physical defects and genetic abnormalities will also be monitored, fetal real-time data will pop up through a mobile app, and there is also a real-time HD fetal camera, and the ability to scroll through time-lapse videos of the child's development from the embryo to nine months...
Human babies are the most helpless and least developed in the animal world. Why can't we take the first shaking step like the calf, jumping out of the uterus in five minutes? This is because the human brain is so big for the birth canal of human women that it has not matured at birth, the skull is soft and easy to fold, and it is several months later than other animals in development. But there is no such physiological limitation in EctoLife EZ-Womb, and it can be tested for longer pregnancy, and the results may be very good.
If all this sounds a bit unkind, indifferent and disconnected to you, EctoLife has more technology to soothe your soul. Maybe you miss the feeling of a fetal kick? A tactile suit can bring this feeling to any parent who wants it, and only when they want it. Want to see the beginning of life from your child’s perspective? Wearing an VR helmet and adjusting it to a 360-degree camera at any time can also be achieved.
More importantly, if you don’t like to raise your baby on a baby farm with 400 baby labs, you can also install a battery-powered baby cabin in your own home.
This way, future humans may not have a strong human childbirth experience as many billions of parents before, but on the other hand, people will feel fresh and well rested on the first day of their hard work as parents, rather than gradually being shrouded in a feeling of being dragged and lurking by a parasite.
Al-Ghaili believes that it was the only choice for some parents at the beginning: those who cannot naturally conceive or have children. But as it is perfected and proven, it will become the choice of all future parents, easily connecting with what we know about IVF, genetic screening, embryo selection, genetic potential model and genetic engineering .
