A maternity hospital that can accommodate up to 30,000 babies a year in artificial wombs could solve the world’s low birth rate, which Elon Musk says is the most significant threat to human civilization.
A new concept video takes viewers inside the EctoLife artificial womb facility, where hundreds of fetuses sit in transparent, temperature-controlled pods with an umbilical cord to receive oxygen and nutrients.
Hashem Al-Ghaili, film producer and biotechnologist, created the realistic film to start a conversation about these technologies that would allow women whose uterus has been removed to give birth, reduce premature births and fight the decline of population.
The process would use in vitro fertilization, allowing parents to choose the ‘most viable and genetically superior embryo’, which can also be genetically modified to customize traits, including physical strength and elimination of inherited diseases .
Although the video is a concept, Al-Ghaili said it was based on “50 years of groundbreaking scientific research conducted by researchers around the world”, and that such birthing pods could be widespread in “a few decades “.
The concept video aims to start a conversation about the future of childbirth. The creator plans the transition from real wombs to artificial wombs housed in a research laboratory
The video plays as an advertisement for EctoLife, which “allows infertile couples to conceive a baby”.
The facility includes 75 labs, each with up to 400 growth pods designed to replicate the actual conditions of the mother’s womb and includes sensors that monitor the baby’s vital signs.
This includes heart rate, temperature, and oxygen saturation.
The pods are also equipped with an AI-powered camera that continuously scans the fetus for potential genetic abnormalities and monitors the overall growth process.
Parents receive an app that plays live footage of their baby inside the pod, along with vital displays.
The video also says parents can record messages to play in the artificial womb and create music playlists for their babies.
Although the video focuses on improving birth rates, it also notes that the Birthing Farm is for women who fear pregnancy due to the pain and recovery needed after labor.
“Say goodbye to labor pain and muscle twitching,” says the video’s narrator.
“EctoLife provides a safe and painless alternative that helps you give birth stress-free.”
The delivery process requires parents to press a button on the pod.
Amniotic fluid is drained from the inside and the artificial womb opens, allowing parents to hold their baby for the first time.
The video, which looks like a scene from the 1999 film The Matrix, is just a concept for now, but it could be used in the future as the world faces population decline.
Musk said “civilization will crumble” if declining birth rates continue at a Wall Street Journal event in December 2021.
As the comment was made as the world’s population stood at 7.9 billion – it recently hit eight billion – the tech mogul warned the world was in dire need of humans.
The concept facility, called EctoLife, would grow up to 30,000 babies a year in its birthing pods
The facility includes 75 labs, each with up to 400 growth modules
The pods would be arranged in rows, allowing researchers to monitor each one as the baby grows
Birth rates in developed countries have been falling for years, which has led to a drop in the overall rate.
The average woman had two and a half children in 2020, up from five 50 years ago.
Rates are even lower in the UK (1.74) and the US (1.77). Higher education and contraception and the increase in the number of women entering the workforce are thought to be causing the worrying trends.
Birthing pods would be an alternative for infertile couples and those reluctant to carry a baby themselves.
And the new video may seem like a breakthrough, artificial wombs have been talking about in the scientific community since 1923, when it was first presented at a lecture given by an English biologist.
Then in 1955, scientists unveiled a reservoir that would grow a fetus.
This design featured amniotic fluid, a machine connecting to the umbilical cord, blood pumps, an artificial kidney, and a water heater.
Parents receive an app that reads live footage of their baby inside the pod and displays vital signs.
However, technology is advancing and scientists are thinking of more options that expand from a pod or tank.
In 2020, researchers succeeded in creating a viable artificial uterus in rabbits.
Anthony Atala of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and his colleagues made cultured uterine tissue from rabbit uterine cells, which they seeded on a biodegradable scaffold.
Developed by the team, this broad approach has already been used in humans to restore the function of tubular organs such as the urethra and specific hollow organs including the bladder and vagina.
By implanting the bioengineered scaffolds into 14 rabbits, the researchers demonstrated that the artificial wombs could create the native tissue-like structures needed to support normal reproduction.
Six months after the does were implanted with the scaffolds, the animals were able to mate naturally with fertile males.
“Rabbits with cell-seeded constructs had normal pregnancies in the reconstructed segments of the uterus,” said article author Renata Magalhaes of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
“This research opens new avenues to potentially create tissue substitutes derived from a patient’s own cells to treat uterine malformations.”
The pods are also equipped with an AI-powered camera that continuously scans the fetus for potential genetic abnormalities and monitors the overall growth process.
The delivery process requires parents to press a button on the pod, which opens the glass structure and allows parents to take their baby home
Custom-made babies aren’t science fiction either, as experts have worked tirelessly to perfect the procedure.
Chinese scientists have admitted to editing the genes of human embryos for the first time in 2015, when they altered the gene responsible for β-thalassemia, a life-threatening blood disease, using a line-editing technique. germline known as CRISPR/Cas9.
CRISPR technology precisely modifies the target parts of the genetic code.
But the researchers said their results revealed “serious obstacles” to using the technique on human embryos.
The announcement confirmed rumors that some researchers had conducted ethically questionable genetic experiments.
Some scientists have reacted with horror to this idea, fearing that it will be hijacked to allow parents to “select” the genes they will pass on to their grandchildren.
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