Ectogenesis

Ectogenetic Research

Research in several areas suggests that ectogenesis might be realized, and perhaps soon. Embodied (in vivo) human gestational length continues to decrease from both ends of pregnancy with advances in neonatology and embryology. Increasingly, neonatologists can sustain barely viable, severely premature infants, using sophisticated incubators to support fetal oxygen transmission and lung maturation. Such developments in preemie preservation impinge on the 24-week viability line that many previously considered unyielding. The length of embodied gestation for human fetuses has also narrowed from conception. Achievements in embryology, originating primarily from in vitro fertilization (IVF) research, have extended science's ability to conceive and maintain embryos outside the maternal body. Successes in these two areas of reproductive technology combine to contract the span during which human reproduction still requires in vivo gestation. The implications of such technologies for full ectogenetic reproduction are monumental.

Other ectogenetic research includes work by Japanese researcher Dr. Yoshinor Kuwabara, who in 1997 artificially gestated a 17-week-old goat fetus removed from its mother's uterus. The transplanted goat fetus gestated artificially for three weeks before Kuwabara terminated the experiment. The artificial uterus Kuwabara designed supported the fetus in tanks filled with amniotic fluid, and hoses connected to the umbilical cord to regulate the animal's intake of nutrients and the output of its body wastes.

In 2002, Cornell University researcher Hung-Ching Liu, Ph.D., cultured donated uterine cells that were then implanted with human embryos. Liu stopped the embryo growth after six days in compliance with U.S. laws governing IVF, but she anticipates extending the growth time to 14 days. Her research, if successful, could allow transplantation of an artificially grown, new uterus, along with any implanted embryos, back into the body of a donor or other woman. It could also one day result in the growth of a fully ectogenetic uterus to permit complete human reproduction outside the body. Inter-species gestation among animals offers the possibility that nonhuman animals might one day gestate human fetuses. In response to the dwindling panda population, Chinese researchers implanted hybridized rabbit-panda embryos (made from panda DNA inserted into rabbit egg casings) into rabbit uteruses. They finally achieved a panda-rabbit embryo pregnancy with an embryo implantated in a cat uterus. [Page 325]Some researchers look to interspecies reproduction for full ectogenetic human reproduction.

...