Though we are nowhere near producing an artificial womb which can gestate and nurture a human being, the research in this field has been on-going for quite a few years now |Image used for representational purpose only
| Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto
According to reports that surfaced on the internet last week, a Chinese firm announced plans to create the world’s first pregnancy robot with an artificial womb. It was fake news, and all the major news outlets bought it. Because it made flashy sci-fi headlines especially in a world where anything seems possible with omnipresent AI.
My book on surrogacy, “Baby Makers”, which came out in 2016 had a chapter called Virgin Birth and Womb Banks, where I discussed the possibilities of sexless reproduction and artificial wombs which could be enabled by cutting edge technology.
It sounded then like science fiction. And it still remains in the realm of science fiction. But though we are nowhere near producing an artificial womb which can gestate and nurture a human being, the research in this field has been on-going for quite a few years now.
More than 10 years ago when I was researching my book, I read about Hung-Ching Liu, Professor of Reproductive Medicine at Cornell University, U.S., who had engineered endometrial tissue by prompting cells to grow in an artificial uterus. Apparently, he was also able to successfully implant and grow the embryo of a mouse.
In another experiment, Liu used cultured cells collected from a woman womb and created an artificial womb using a scaffolding. Inside this womb he planted fertilised embryos left over from IVF cycles. In six days, the eggs implanted in it just as they would in a real womb. But his experiment had to end just 14 days later as researchers were not allowed to grow foetuses in the lab for more than 14 days.
In other parts of the world too, exciting research was going on in this field. In Japan, goat foetuses were grown in a prototype womb. In New South Wales, an artificial womb designed to give birth to live sharks was successfully tested.
Meanwhile, by 2014, womb replacement surgery had become a reality. Five women from Sweden and 11 from UK had their wombs replaced. Two of the women had wombs donated by their mothers.
The first baby born from a womb transplant was in Sweden in 2014. Since then, around 135 such transplants have been carried out in over a dozen countries, including the US, China, France, Germany, India, and Turkey. Approximately 65 babies have been born as a result. Galaxy Care Hospital in India has also achieved success with uterine transplants and has delivered babies from transplanted wombs.
As of now, artificial wombs are being used mainly to nurture preterm babies. The babies are placed in bio bags and float in a liquid mimicking the amniotic fluid found in natural wombs. An artificial placenta, which is connected to the umbilical cord, provides oxygen and nutrients.
Experiments are also on to try and produce eggs and sperm from stem cells.
(Gita Aravamudan is an independent journalist and author of several fiction and non fiction books. gita.aravamudan@gmail.com)
Published – August 29, 2025 06:30 am IST
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