The idea of an artificial womb sounds like science fiction; it conjures up dystopian thoughts of The Matrix. But this technology isn’t as distant as it might seem — and the United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA) is considering, in its late September 2023 meeting, how an approved artificial womb might work.
Before we go any further, let’s first make things clear: this is not replacing a human for an entire pregnancy. We aren’t going to be making “pod people” any time soon.
Instead, an artificial womb would be a support system for infants who are born pre-term and are severely underdeveloped, helping to provide the right system and environment so that they can finish developing and become healthy, fully developed babies.