Insane! Artificial Womb Facility Can Let You Select Characteristics Of Your Baby

What if you get to decide what characteristics your baby should have? Yes! you heard right, a Germany-based biotechnologist is developing the first artificial womb facility, which lets you select a baby’s characteristics from a menu. This will be the world's first artificial womb facility. 

The EctoLife research company revealed the facility that offers customer baby characteristics to choose from on a menu. So far, it claims the capacity of the lab is to grow 30,000 babies a year and is said to be based on over 50 years of scientific research.

Scientist Behind First Artificial Womb Facility

Berlin-based Hashem Al-Ghaili is behind the concept and the facility. According to him, such a technology could help infertile couples to conceive a baby and be biological parents of their own progeny. 

Al-Ghaili in a report said, “Introducing EctoLife, the world’s first artificial womb facility, which is powered entirely by renewable energy. According to the World Health Organization, around 300,000 women die from pregnancy complications. The artificial womb is designed to alleviate human suffering and reduce the chances of C-sections. The premature births and C-sections will be a thing of the past.”

The company has a range of packages that provide services on different levels. For instance, the ‘Elite Package’ includes genetically arranging the embryo before implanting it into the artificial womb. Also, the menu allows choosing things like colour of eyes, hair colour, intelligence level, height, and more. Moreover, it is also claimed that inherited genetic diseases can be evaded. 

According to Al-Ghaili, women who removed their uterus owning to cancer or other complications can also become a mother. This could also help in boosting the birth rate in countries such as Japan, Bulgaria, and many others, where the population is declining. He also believes the technology is available but ethical constraints are holding the concept to flourish.

Talking about the facility, the artificial wombs are also called pods, every pod is designed like a mother’s uterus, and the conditions are similar to it. The pods show real-time data on the developmental progress of the baby. On the assumption that babies while in the womb can learn words, the pods feature internal speakers which play a wide range of words and music. 

This seems like ground-breaking scientific research, however, many questioned the implications of an artificial womb facility. The critics also feel this could be misused. And if in the future, the nation decides to breed only the strongest and most competent human beings, then what could be the implications of this? 

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