Ectogenesis

Summary

Ectogenesis (from the Greek ἐκτός, "outside," and genesis) is the growth of an organism in an artificial environment[1] outside the body in which it would normally be found, such as the growth of an embryo or fetus outside the mother's body, or the growth of bacteria outside the body of a host.[2] The term was coined by British scientist J.B.S. Haldane in 1924.[3][4]

Human embryos and fetuses edit

Ectogenesis of human embryos and fetuses would require an artificial uterus. An artificial uterus would have to be supplied with nutrients and oxygen from some source to nurture the fetus, as well as dispose of waste material. There would likely be a need for an interface between such a supplier, filling this function of the placenta. An artificial uterus, as a replacement organ, could be used to assist women with damaged, diseased or removed uteri to allow the fetus to be conceived to term. It also has the potential to move the threshold of fetal viability to a much earlier stage of pregnancy. This would have implications for the ongoing controversy regarding human reproductive rights.

Ectogenesis could also be a means by which homosexual, impotent, disabled and single men and women could have genetic offspring without the use of surrogate pregnancy or a sperm donor, and allow women to have children without going through the pregnancy cycle.[5]

Synthetic embryo edit

 
"Post-gastrulation synthetic embryos generated ex utero from mouse naive ESCs"[6]

In 2022, Jacob Hanna and his team at the Weizmann Institute of Science created early "embryo-like structures'" from mice stem cells.[7][8] The world's first synthetic embryo does not require sperm, eggs nor fertilization and were grown from only embryonic stem cells (ESCs) or also from stem cells other than ESCs.[7] The structure had an intestinal tract, early brain and a beating heart and a placenta with a yolk sac around the embryo.[7] The researchers said it could lead to better understanding of organ and tissue development, new sources of cells and tissues for human transplantation.[7] However, human synthetic embryos are a long ways off.[7] Their research was published by Cell on August 1, 2022.[6]

Also in August 2022, a study described how University of Cambridge and the same Weizmann Institute of Science scientists[6] created a synthetic embryo with a brain and a beating heart by using stem cells (also some stem cells other than ESCs). No human eggs nor sperm were used. They showed natural-like development and some survived until day 8.5 where early organogenesis, including formation of foundations of a brain, occurs. Scientists hope it can be used to create synthetic human organs for transplantation.[9][10]

The embryos grew in vitro and subsequently ex utero in an artificial womb published the year before by the Hanna team in Nature,[11] and was used in both studies. The two studies were considered a milestone achievement, but the research is controversial. Potential applications include "uncovering the role of different genes in birth defects or developmental disorders", gaining "direct insight into the origins of a new life", "understand[ing] why some pregnancies fail", and developing sources "of organs and tissues for people who need them".[9][12][13][14] The term 'synthetic embryo' in the title of the second study was later changed to the alternative term, "Embryo model".[10]

On 6 September 2023, Nature published research that the Weizmann Institute team created the first complete human day 14 post-implantation embryo models[15] from naïve ES cells expanded in special naive conditions developed by the same team in 2021.[16] It uses reprogrammed genetically unmodified naïve stem cells to become any type of body tissue.[15][17] The embryo model (termed and abbreviated as SEM) mimics all the key structures like a "textbook image" of a human day-14 embryo.[17][15]

Bioethical considerations edit

The development of artificial uteri and ectogenesis raises a few bioethical and legal considerations, and also has important implications for reproductive rights and the abortion debate.

Artificial uteri may expand the range of fetal viability, raising questions about the role that fetal viability plays within abortion law. Within severance theory, for example, abortion rights only include the right to remove the fetus, and do not always extend to the termination of the fetus. In the abortion debate, the death of the fetus has historically been considered an unavoidable side effect, rather than the primary goal, of an abortion.[5] If transferring the fetus from a woman's womb to an artificial uterus becomes possible, then the choice to terminate a pregnancy in this way could result in a living child.[18][19][20] Thus the pregnancy could be aborted at any point – which respects the woman's right to bodily autonomy – without impinging on the moral status of the embryo or fetus.[5]

There are also theoretical concerns that children who develop in an artificial uterus may lack "some essential bond with their mothers that other children have";[21] a secondary issue to woman's rights over their own body.

In the 1970 book The Dialectic of Sex, feminist Shulamith Firestone wrote that differences in biological reproductive roles are a source of gender inequality. Firestone singled out pregnancy and childbirth, making the argument that an artificial womb would free "women from the tyranny of their reproductive biology."[22][23]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ yourdictionary.com > ectogenesis In turn citing: Webster's New World College Dictionary, 2010 by Wiley Publishing
  2. ^ ectogenesis. CollinsDictionary.com. Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 11th Edition. Retrieved September 23, 2012
  3. ^ "Artificial Wombs Are Coming, but the Controversy Is Already Here". Motherboard. 4 August 2014. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
  4. ^ JAMES, DAVID N. (1 January 1987). "Ectogenesis: A Reply to Singer and Wells". Bioethics. 1 (1): 80–99. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8519.1987.tb00006.x. PMID 11649763.
  5. ^ a b c Moran, Rosalind. "Artificial Wombs Will Change Abortion Rights Forever". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2023-10-25.
  6. ^ a b c Tarazi, Shadi; Aguilera-Castrejon, Alejandro; Joubran, Carine; Ghanem, Nadir; Ashouokhi, Shahd; Roncato, Francesco; Wildschutz, Emilie; Haddad, Montaser; Oldak, Bernardo; Gomez-Cesar, Elidet; Livnat, Nir; Viukov, Sergey; Lokshtanov, Dmitry; Naveh-Tassa, Segev; Rose, Max; Hanna, Suhair; Raanan, Calanit; Brenner, Ori; Kedmi, Merav; Keren-Shaul, Hadas; Lapidot, Tsvee; Maza, Itay; Novershtern, Noa; Hanna, Jacob H. (1 September 2022). "Post-gastrulation synthetic embryos generated ex utero from mouse naive ESCs". Cell. 185 (18): 3290–3306.e25. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2022.07.028. ISSN 0092-8674. PMC 9439721. PMID 35988542.
  7. ^ a b c d e "Scientists create world's first 'synthetic embryos'". The Guardian. August 3, 2022. Archived from the original on August 3, 2022.
  8. ^ "¬Post-Gastrulation Synthetic Embryos Generated Ex Utero from Mouse Naïve ESCs". Cell. August 1, 2022. Archived from the original on August 4, 2022.
  9. ^ a b "Synthetic embryo with brain and beating heart created by University of Cambridge scientists". Cambridge Independent. 1 September 2022. Archived from the original on September 17, 2022.
  10. ^ a b Amadei, Gianluca; Handford, Charlotte E.; Qiu, Chengxiang; De Jonghe, Joachim; Greenfeld, Hannah; Tran, Martin; Martin, Beth K.; Chen, Dong-Yuan; Aguilera-Castrejon, Alejandro; Hanna, Jacob H.; Elowitz, Michael; Hollfelder, Florian; Shendure, Jay; Glover, David M.; Zernicka-Goetz, Magdalena (25 August 2022). "Synthetic embryos complete gastrulation to neurulation and organogenesis". Nature. 610 (7930): 143–153. doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05246-3. ISSN 1476-4687. PMC 9534772. PMID 36007540. S2CID 251843659.
  11. ^ Aguilera-Castrejon, Alejandro; Oldak, Bernardo; Shani, Tom; Ghanem, Nadir; Itzkovich, Chen; Slomovich, Sharon; Tarazi, Shadi; Bayerl, Jonathan; Chugaeva, Valeriya; Ayyash, Muneef; Ashouokhi, Shahd; Sheban, Daoud; Livnat, Nir; Lasman, Lior; Viukov, Sergey (May 2021). "Ex utero mouse embryogenesis from pre-gastrulation to late organogenesis". Nature. 593 (7857): 119–124. doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03416-3. ISSN 1476-4687.
  12. ^ Willyard, Cassandra (25 August 2022). "Mouse embryos grown without eggs or sperm: why, and what's next?". Nature. 609 (7926): 230–231. Bibcode:2022Natur.609..230W. doi:10.1038/d41586-022-02334-2. PMID 36008716. S2CID 251843735.
  13. ^ "Synthetischer Embryo entwickelt Organe". www.sciencemediacenter.de. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  14. ^ Holcombe, Madeline. "A synthetic embryo, made without sperm or egg, could lead to infertility treatments". CNN. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  15. ^ a b c "Complete human day 14 post-implantation embryo models from naïve ES cells". Nature. Nature (journal). 6 September 2023. Archived from the original on 6 September 2023.
  16. ^ Bayerl, Jonathan; Ayyash, Muneef; Shani, Tom; Manor, Yair Shlomo; Gafni, Ohad; Massarwa, Rada; Kalma, Yael; Aguilera-Castrejon, Alejandro; Zerbib, Mirie; Amir, Hadar; Sheban, Daoud; Geula, Shay; Mor, Nofar; Weinberger, Leehee; Naveh Tassa, Segev (2021-09-02). "Principles of signaling pathway modulation for enhancing human naive pluripotency induction". Cell Stem Cell. 28 (9): 1549–1565.e12. doi:10.1016/j.stem.2021.04.001. ISSN 1934-5909. PMC 8423434.
  17. ^ a b "Scientists grow whole model of human embryo, without sperm or egg". BBC. BBC. September 6, 2023. Archived from the original on September 6, 2023.
  18. ^ Randall, Vernellia; Randall, Tshaka C. (22 March 2008). "Built in Obsolescence: The Coming End to the Abortion Debate". SSRN Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.1112367. S2CID 57105464.
  19. ^ Chessen, Matt (2013-03-02). "Artificial Wombs Could Outlaw Abortion". Mattlesnake.com.
  20. ^ Mathison, Eric; Davis, Jeremy (2017). "Is there a right to the death of the foetus?". Bioethics. 31 (4): 313–320. doi:10.1111/bioe.12331. PMID 28182294. S2CID 3808881.
  21. ^ Smajdor, Anna (Summer 2007). "The Moral Imperative for Ectogenesis" (PDF). Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics. 16 (3): 336–45. doi:10.1017/s0963180107070405. PMID 17695628. S2CID 36754378. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-09-11. Retrieved 2013-06-28.
  22. ^ Chemaly, Soraya (23 February 2012). "What Do Artificial Wombs Mean for Women?". RH Reality Check.
  23. ^ Rosen, Christine (2003). "Why Not Artificial Wombs?" (PDF). The New Atlantis.

Further reading edit

  • Coleman, Stephen (2004). The Ethics Of Artificial Uteruses: Implications For Reproduction And Abortion. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Pub. ISBN 978-0-7546-5051-5.
  • Gelfand, Scott, ed. (2006). Ectogenesis: Artificial Womb Technology and the Future of Human Reproduction. Amsterdam [u.a.]: Rodopi. ISBN 978-90-420-2081-8.