[alaaalawi]

its really leads to all sorts of question. when markets for eggs and sperms to be sold directly to interested (the layman) are there and the buyer funds the rent of the artificial womb and the food/nutrition + bio conditions. will he be the father or the owner? if more over the buyer have a farm (so to speak) of wombs?

[bhouston]

This already exists just with surrogacy as there are both egg and sperm banks available to those who need them.

A lot of Hollywood stars these days are using surrogacy, it is quite common: https://people.com/parents/celebrities-who-have-used-surroga...

[Melting_Harps]

> This already exists just with surrogacy as there are both egg and sperm banks available to those who need them.

True, and if you saw what played out during COVID you'll realize there is a massive market for this: during COVID healthy, viable sperm supply outstripped supply significnatly, and the market dynamics went into effect. Some so brazen as to advertise on FB to do so [0].

Surrogacy continued to thrive during COVID and was only hampered because of the Russian invasion, it is hoime to perhaps one of the biggest fertility/surrogacy countries on Earth. Lots of children were born during the war and have not been reunited with their families yet, either.

It's one of the many stark and bleaker parts of the War and ultimately about the Human Condition that make me think that while we are likely inching closer towards a Brave New World situation, with all the dire implications that go along with it, that when it comes to fertility this might be the best of all bad solutions.

Personally, I have chosen to delay having children for what will likely be another decade, after not following in my parent's or siblings footsteps of having children in their 20s. Its a conscious decision but ultimately a forced one: namely political strife, environmental factors and climate change are at the forefront but there are more. And seeing fertility rates absolutely crater in the 21st century in anything but the most economically dire of places (namely Africa and India) I think having the framework ahead of the device might be wise as we will have to eventually kick-start a new baby-boom in order just to reach a semi-parity as millennials like myself enter as the larger cohort with similair delays in childbirth--I''m an outlier in having children, most of my friends over 30 just don't even want children if they haven't already had them.

0: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/08/business/sperm-donors-fac...

1: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/12/world/europe/ukraine-surr...

[bhouston]

> I have chosen to delay having children for what will likely be another decade

I would recommend to anyone who eventually wants children someday to not delay. Fertility worldwide will get worse before it gets better.

[dragonwriter]

I mean, this regulatory effort, centered around rules for trials of artificial wombs for use as NICU alternatives for very-premature infants, don’t really raise that issue; they would basically be medical gear like incubators (but, presumably, only get approved if thet offer an improvement in outcomes.)

[lotsofpulp]

Perhaps whatever policies exist around surrogate pregnancies now would apply there also.

[ausbah]

ppl can already have arbitrary amounts of kids either in a nuclear family setting or “spreading their seed everywhere”. given they’re still responsible on paper, but that doesn’t stop someone from doing it in the first place