Ectogenesis

As a replacement organ, an artificial uterus could be used to assist women with damaged, diseased or removed uteri to allow the fetus to be conceived to term.

[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.

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",[10] and developing sources "of organs and tissues for people who need them".

[15][17] 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.

[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.

In the 1970 book The Dialectic of Sex, feminist Shulamith Firestone wrote that differences in biological reproductive roles are a source of gender inequality.