Human trials of artificial wombs could start soon. Here’s what you need to know. - eviltoast
  • over_clox@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Have you forgotten how much school children torment other kids over not having both parents and a ‘normal’ family? Now imagine going to school and everyone tormenting you over being a test-tube/bag baby?

    Do you really think that kid is gonna grow up without losing his/her shit somewhere along the way?

    • Vashti@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      Who the hell is getting bullied for being a test-tube baby?

      We had all this shit in the 70s before the first IVF baby, and to the best of my knowledge, bullying over it has simply never been a thing.

      • over_clox@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Have you never heard of the very common meme, “Daddy went to get a pack of smokes and never came back”

        Yeah, image that meme on steroids, “You don’t even have a mother?”

        • Vashti@feddit.uk
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          1 year ago

          … Have you honestly, genuinely never heard of test tube babies? Do you not realise we’ve had them since the 70s?

          Think about that, then realise we had all this shit about “but the poor children” back then, for that, and none of it ever materialised because nobody gives a shit or ever knows the difference or cares at all.

          It’s no different than giving birth by c-section, or indeed vaginally. There is no difference.

    • TotesIllegit@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      How would anybody find out? The kid would only ever really need to know at a young age (where they might out themselves without Knowing the social risks) if they had ongoing medical needs from complications resulting from it. Plus, it’s an artificial womb, not cloning; the kid would still have two genetic parents who would be their actual legal guardians, unless life happened and the kid lost one or both of them, which would just mean the bullying would focus on that instead.

      • over_clox@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Sounds to me the process could eventually be used with frozen eggs and sperm from 50+ years ago. You’re not making me any more comfortable about the future of an already overpopulated planet.

        • TotesIllegit@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          If they’re viable samples, it would be probably be possible as soon as it’s people can have their contemporary eggs and sperm used in a fully artificial gestation process.

          I wasn’t talking at all about overpopulation because it wasn’t directly related to your comment about bullying. I don’t think we have an overpopulation problem so much as a resource distribution problem and lack of political will among those with power to actually change our systems into something less cruel to ourselves and the planet. We produce far more than we need to in our current system for the population we have, but our resource distribution system is directed by the whims of market forces and profit instead of community need.

          Plus, I tend to automatically reject the assumption we’re overpopulated because bringing it up gives off an implication that it needs to be intentionally resolved, and that gets into really horrific territory really quickly.

          On top of that, nobody even knows what the human carrying capacity of the planet even is; there’s zero scientific consensus on total human capacity or how to even measure it. It’s a non-starter for me, and I just do not think it’s an issue worth worrying about, but I am deeply concerned with how quick people are to blame everything on overpopulation as the cause of shortages when we haven’t really tried a different approach.

          Edit: I fixed the last sentence to make sense.