The truly hard part is raising them to be decent human beings. There is more to procreation than fertilization and carrying to term.
While an artificial womb could be very useful as a medical device to save the life of the child, in vitro/ex vivo methods of reproduction only entrench human alienation. Support for them bespeaks an absence of a sound philosophical anthropology. And I mean not just the alienation of the children, but the alienation of men and women from their own humanity as well. And this is because it attacks the very core of what it means to be human.
But as they say, experience is an expensive school, but fools will learn in no other. Often, nothing short of catastrophe is needed to lead men to pause and reflection, and even then, there are no guarantees.
"in vitro/ex vivo methods of reproduction only entrench human alienation"
I absolutely disagree with your view. Infertility is a medical condition much like cataract or myocardial infarction.
In my view, it is profoundly unethical to deny unhealthy people efficient treatment of their disease for philosophical reasons. You are straying dangerously close to the "life unworthy of life" eugenics that is, fortunately, overcome. Trying to ban other people from procreating because your personal opinion on the necessary means is "phew, icky" (and for all the grand words in your comment, you basically say "phew, icky"), sounds like it is you who hasn't taken any lessons from the experience of the collective West.
There's a chasm between banning people from procreating and not going to extraordinary lengths to guarantee them their own biological offspring. That type of bate and switch is used for other medically and transactionally complex situations that future humans have to deal with.
There are millions of couples going through IVF that fail to get viable embryos. Probably 3/4 of women over 40 fail to get any successful pregnancies, and many younger ones too.
Depends how much over 40. "At age 40: 44% will have a conception ending in a live birth within one year, 64% will have a conception ending in a live birth within four years" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_and_female_fertility
The lab that published this paper has also been developing an ex vivo environment for growing these kinds of human embryoids by what's called rolling culture. Other groups specializing in extremely premature neonatal care have been pushing the gestational envelope from the other direction.
Moving away from the traditional family has detrimental effects for the children. See this Wikipedia page and it's citations for a start: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_absence
While an artificial womb could be very useful as a medical device to save the life of the child, in vitro/ex vivo methods of reproduction only entrench human alienation. Support for them bespeaks an absence of a sound philosophical anthropology. And I mean not just the alienation of the children, but the alienation of men and women from their own humanity as well. And this is because it attacks the very core of what it means to be human.
But as they say, experience is an expensive school, but fools will learn in no other. Often, nothing short of catastrophe is needed to lead men to pause and reflection, and even then, there are no guarantees.