When Life Imitates Art Imitates Life

I love it when current events become story fodder

A couple of days ago, a story went viral about an artificial womb that was successfully growing a baby sheep. It’s fascinating, especially since they want to eventually use it to save extremely premature babies. It could save lives — babies born too soon, babies that have to be delivered early to save their lives or the lives of their mother — and suddenly science fiction becomes science fact.

But, of course, my writer’s brain always runs away with the “What If’s.”

What If — These artificial wombs pass FDA clinical trials and get approved for human use? They could save lives.

What If — Artificial wombs become available to anyone with the money to purchase one? Carrying your own offspring suddenly becomes unfashionable.

What If — Genetic manipulation of these children, carried outside the body, becomes the norm? Designer babies become the newest must-have item, and we all know where that leads…

Finally…

What if the government decides that if you can’t afford to utilize an artificial womb you’re suddenly not worthy of having children?

Science fiction is the way we see the future — it’s what we hope to see in the future, or the things that we hope that we don’t see.

My current work-in-progress is one of those stories of things that I hope we don’t see. A lesson in fiction, maybe, of how to not fuck everything up like we seem to be so prone to do.

It might seem a bit arrogant, I know.

As a writer, all I want to do is tell a good story. If you learn something in the meantime, that’s just a bonus.

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