Like a Virgin by Prasad, Aarathi (recommended reading txt) 📕

might then be able to develop to term in such a highly regulated environment. Would ‘pulling the plug’ on that foetus in an artificial womb be seen as an early-term abortion or euthanasia?

There is a flip side to that dilemma, of course: it just might be easier to make genetic corrections and modifications to a foetus in a plastic box, which is what an artificial womb is likely to be, less its sophisticated controls. Not only would it be easier to reach the foetus, it would avoid the need to operate on the mother in order to get into the womb. For both mother and child, this would make pregnancy a much safer prospect.

Another point to consider is whether the only role of a mother’s womb is to house the developing embryo and provide what it needs to grow. We now know that a woman shapes the genetics of her child through what is known as epigenetics, which refers to changes written over DNA that are environmental and potentially reversible. Epigenetics is the force involved in genetic imprinting, when a chemical group sits on a stretch of DNA and influences whether and when the genes there work – or don’t. These influences can be good, neutral, or bad for a child; epigenetics is agnostic when it comes to development.

The inheritance of characteristics through epigenetics is something that scientists have only quite recently started getting to grips with. But it seems that even from very early in life – including when we are in our mother’s wombs – we can be influenced by things that we previously thought had no impact, things like how much a woman eats and how stressed she is. There are, for example, very clear epigenetic signatures that mark those whose mothers have lived through famine and poor socio-economic circumstances. One study of a small town in Sweden found that having plenty of food had an interesting effect: the grandsons of men who ate well had a greater risk of diabetes than the granddaughters of women who did – meaning that the sex chromosomes could be involved. A 2008 study of women who were diagnosed with depression in the third trimester found that their infant children reacted to stressful situations by releasing more of the hormone cortisol, which increases blood sugar and helps with metabolism – getting a person ready for the quintessential fight-or-flight response. And it did not matter if the women were receiving treatment for depression; the stress-response trait passed to the infant regardless. Epigenetic signatures have also been associated with being abused as a child, changing both that person’s DNA – and possibly also her offspring’s.

There are sure to be other traits passed to a baby through the simple fact of being in one woman’s womb rather than another’s. And since epigenetics is about shaping genetics, sharing genes with the child in your womb may not make a difference when it comes to these effects. It is possible, for instance, that through epigenetics surrogate mothers are influencing the way a child’s genetics play out, including elements of the child’s personality – that is to say, how the child adapts to its outside environment. Of course, by the same token, an artificial womb may throw no epigenetic influence on to the foetus growing within it. Whether that would be good, neutral or bad, it is far too early to know. Our knowledge of epigenetic influences is too new for us to begin to contemplate what would happen if they were removed from the process.

What would undoubtedly be good for the foetus would be gestating removed from exposure to undesirable chemicals such as nicotine, alcohol, and other drugs that can be absorbed via the placenta when a mother imbibes. During pregnancy, up to fifteen percent of women are believed to use alcohol, and about five percent use illegal drugs. The proportion of women taking these substances decreases as they enter the later stages of pregnancy, but the effects on the foetus are often worse in the early stages of growth. And drug misuse, illegal or not, is known to have potentially disastrous consequences for an unborn child. Heroin, or more specifically withdrawal between heroin use, can lead to spasm of the placental blood vessels, which reduces blood flow to the placenta and lowers birth weight. Benzodiazapines, which are used to treat anxiety and insomnia among other things, but which are also often abused, slightly increase the risk that a baby will be born with a cleft palate; they are also associated with low birth weight as well as premature birth, and can trigger withdrawal symptoms in the newborn. Cocaine is a powerful constrictor of blood vessels; heavy use increases the risk of several serious conditions, including the placenta detaching from the womb, stunted brain growth, underdevelopment of organs and limbs, and even foetal death. Tobacco causes a reduction in birth weight greater than that caused by heroin, and is a major factor in increasing the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), or cot death. Cannabis use does not seem to have a direct effect on pregnancy, but because the drug is frequently mixed with tobacco, the results can be the same as smoking during pregnancy.

Finally, there is humanity’s most accepted drug: alcohol. When consumed in large amounts, alcohol results in reduced birth weight. In the most extreme cases, a baby will suffer the effects of so-called foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS): low birth weight, with general growth throughout life being stunted, including the circumference of the head – and consequently the size of the brain. Children with FAS will also exhibit dysfunctions in the central nervous system, including learning disabilities and certain, characteristic facial abnormalities, known as the FAS face. Children with FAS are likely to have smaller head size and eye openings, an underdeveloped