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Abortion laws may have to change if artificial wombs like the ones being used to sustain premature lambs were made for premature babies.
This is the view of Dr. David Prentice, vice president and research director of the Charlotte Lozier Institute.
The artificial wombs enable the lambs to survive from a younger age than ever before in conditions far more like the natural ones than incubators.
Prentice says if the technology were used for human babies, they will be considered “viable” (able to live outside the womb) from a much younger stage than is currently the case.
Some pro-abortion lobbyists claim babies are not “viable” as justification for abortion.
Prentice says the new technology will enable premature babies’ lungs to keep “practising breathing”.
Rather than air, babies in the womb breath in amniotic fluid and get their oxygen through their umbilical cords. For the first time, artificial wombs make this possible.
The artificial wombs in which the lambs are incubated are “very innovative” because there’s no pump circulating the artificial amniotic fluid inside them, Prentice says.
“What this is driven by is actually the little foetal heart.
“It pumps and moves this tiny volume of fluid back and forth and [the baby] gets oxygen then through the umbilical cord just as [he or she] normally would, but it’s all driven by the foetal system rather than some mechanical pump trying to pump it and force it.”
The technology also makes it possible for the developing infant to get nutrients through its umbilical cord “more delicately” than is currently the case.
Although artificial wombs offer several possible benefits, they will not be able to replace the mother’s womb throughout pregnancy, Prentice says.
Not only is the technology not available for this option, which he describes as being like science fiction, Prentice says the relationship between mother and baby “is so much more than just biology.
“There are definitely parts of that relationship that scientifically we do not know.”
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