For decades, artificial wombs existed more as a cultural idea than a medical reality. In the groundbreaking novel, Brave New World, intimacy is taken away, people are decanted from bottles on factory floors, and the state has complete control over reproduction. In movies like The Matrix, bodies are shown growing in infinite fields of fluid-filled pods. In these dystopian worlds, embryos are kept alive by machines for purposes other than their own. Ectogenesis seldom seems neutral in science fiction. Instead, it shows future reproduction as something that goes against personal freedom. It is depicted as an instrument of power wielded by authority.

“There is no choice where there is no access.”
— SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective

As artificial wombs move from fiction to reality, they raise deeper ethical questions and stir concern. Over the last ten years, researchers have developed partial ectogenesis systems that support premature animal fetuses in regulated, fluid-filled environments that mimic key features of the…