[Igor Antunov]

Inside what look like oversized ziplock bags strewn with tubes of blood and fluid, eight fetal lambs continued to develop — much like they would have inside their mothers. Over four weeks, their lungs and brains grew, they sprouted wool, opened their eyes, wriggled around, and learned to swallow, according to a new study that takes the first step toward an artificial womb. One day, this device could help to bring premature human babies to term outside the uterus — but right now, it has only been tested on sheep.

Video: http://www.theverge.com/2017/4/25/15421 ... erm-infant

Clone armies as far as the eye can see. Soon.

[snapdragon]

Don't be a wanker.

If, in the future, this invention can help improve the outcome for very premature babies, then that would be a wonderful thing.
I once worked with a woman who'd suffered 9 late miscarriages.
Nine times she'd seen her hopes and dreams of becoming a mum shattered.
Awful though that was for her, I'm not sure it was worse than giving birth to very early baby they manage to keep going for a few weeks only to die.

[Igor Antunov]

Surrogacy has existed for years you know. Artificial wombs have far more interesting applications.

[Zagadka]

Being able to grow and use synthetic organs would/will be a tremendous leap in health care. Tremendous. And I don't mean that phrasing in a mocking Trump way, it would literally be revolutionary. They should have all the monies.

... and somewhere someone is calculating how much they can charge for it.

(have to have cynicism somewhere in the post)

[Citizen J]

There are always at least 2 uses to everything we learn how to do. It's all about our ethics. A clone army might be prohibitively expensive, but I can see some billionaire wanting to raise himself, or fertility clinics raided for frozen embryos to grow healthy organs. I can see stem cells routinely harvested from umbilical cords and frozen so every living person can have replacement organs without the need for anti-rejection drugs.
And I can see the infertile having the one thing natural biology refused.

Try as we always do, we cannot regulate or legislate human motivations world wide. And we cannot take back technology once developed. We are faced with the same dilemma we have always faced - to use what we learn for good or ill.

Imagine a company using these artificial wombs by the thousands for research and development - then destroying the results. Or worse - dumping the results on the state to raise. Even if we stop the company, what should the state do with thousands artificially created babies?
Now imagine a fertility clinic telling a woman who had a complete hysterectomy that she still can have her child, and that it would genetically be HER child. Or a 10 year old child getting a new lease on life from some horrible disease thanks to the organs from a brainless clone they grew from scratch inside an artificial womb. No chance of rejection, no drugs, completely cured.
We are capable of great and terrible things. But it all comes down to US.... not the technology. WE decide how to use it.

[Igor Antunov]

A clone army would be super cheap long term, given that the largest spending component of a military budget are ongoing personnel salaries and pensions (50-70%.) No salary or retirement for clones. They would effectively be indoctrinated warrior slaves from artificial birth until death.

But as Zag suggested, organ harvesting from genetically altered clone hosts would be revolutionary.

Do you want to live to 150? 200? I know I do.

Imagine donating your sperm (they are able to create a male or female zygote with just male gametes), having it injected into an empty egg, having that grown into fetus and then full grown adult inside a vat.

Then you can harvest the perfectly compatible organs from your tailor made donor clone. Bad heart? Kidneys? Liver? Lungs? Hell, did you break your neck? Easy, full body transplant to your clone body. If they surgically sever both ends of the brain stem, they can reattach with meaningful precision, allowing for movement again.

Of course, genetic alteration can get around ethical concerns. Simply put, the donor clone can be induced to develop without a brain. Just the cerebellum that allows for mandatory bodily organ functions.

Coupled with the fact this donor is a composite of your own gametes and not intermingled with those of anyone else, would reinforce this as your own personal donor clone, a non-person, tailor made for harvesting.

Of course, nefarious groups would resort to unethical practices for personal gain. Shit happens, the benefits are worth it. They get up to nefarious shit anyway.

[snapdragon]

Surrogacy has existed for years you know.

Yes, I do know. You're more likely to get your cloned army from women forced to incubate cloned embryos than from artificial wombs.

Artificial wombs have far more interesting applications.

They do. It's a real possibility that artificial wombs will give a better outcome for babies born very pre term than anything that's available today.