“EctoLife” Isn’t Real, and Here’s Where Artificial Wombs Fall Short

This press release is a blend of possibility and bullshit

Creepy, and not as likely to happen as the science media seems to believe. Source: YouTube

Recently, I got linked to an article that looked like it had slipped through a wormhole and arrived at my computer from fifty years in a (potentially dystopian) future. Here’s the headline:

World’s first ‘artificial womb facility,’ will let parents design child’s height, strength, intelligence

The article reads like something out of science fiction. It has quotes like “Controversial clinic expects to develop 30,000 lab-grown babies yearly”, and “Everything from eye and hair color to strength, height, and intelligence can be chosen, and inherited genetic diseases can be avoided.”

And then, most troublingly, it states that “…the technology is available already, and only ethical constraints are holding the concept back from reality”.

Is this true? Can we really grow a baby in an artificial womb, if we’re willing to put aside any ethical concerns?

It’s a bold claim, and it’s a tantalizing mix of possibility and bullshit.

Let’s break down some of the claims of this article, and see which ones measure up, and which fall short.

Where did this article come…