Gonneke:

There was a syndicated piece in some of our newspapers recently about the
artificial uterus.  It was an essay by author and commentator Jeremy
Rifkin, originally written for the Los Angeles times, but it ran in my
newspaper yesterday.

It stated that several weeks ago, some scientists at Cornell University
announced that they had succeeded in creating an artificial womb  lining
using drugs and hormones.  The goal of the research is to help infertile
couples by creating an entire womb that could be transplanted into a
woman.  The article goes on to say that scientists at Juntendou
University in Tokyo are developing the first operational artificial womb.
  It is a clear plastic tank the size of a bread basket and filled with
body-temperature amniotic fluid.  The Japanese research team have kept
goat fetuses alive for up to 10 days in this womb by connecting the
goats' umbilicial cords to machines that serve as a placenta, pumping in
blood , oxygen and nutrition and eliminated waste products.  The lead
researcher predicts that a fully functioning artificial womb may exist in
less than six years.

Rifkin goes on to deplore where this is all leading us--a day where
parenthood was always an option, where the whole process, including
selection of genetic traits for our offspring, could be done in petri
dishes and artificial wombs and parents could bring their designer babies
home when "done".  Sounds far-fetched?  So did cloning sound many years
ago.

You could probably go to the Los Angeles Times website to get a full copy
of the article.

Best,
Ellen Maughan, JD, IBCLC in New Jersey
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