The SafeWomb Prizes

Someday soon, women won't have to squeeze a screaming canned ham through their vagina in order to have a child.

Instead, they'll be able to bear children with artificial wombs.

This essay will make the case for artificial wombs, then lay out a proposal for a sequence of Safewomb Prizes to incentivize the rapid development of artificial wombs.

It's divided into the following sections:

1. The case for artificial wombs.

2. Common objections to artificial wombs.

3. The SafeWomb Prizes.

4. How you can help.

The Case For Artificial Wombs

Artificial wombs offer a number of potential benefits:

• Allow people who would not otherwise be able to have children to bear children: infertile women/men, old couples, and gay people.

• Less risk of death to mothers. Every day 810 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth.

• Less risk of damage to the mother: Common complications of pregnancy include:

  • High Blood Pressure

  • Gestational Diabetes

  • Infections

  • Preeclampsia

  • Preterm Labor

  • Depression & Anxiety

  • Vaginal tearing

  • Vaginal prolapse

  Even healthy, uneventful pregnancies often cause cosmetic damage:

  • Stretch marks

  • Loose skin

  • Sagging breasts

  • Bigger hips

  • Fat deposits

• Less risk of damage to the fetus. When the technology is fully developed, most parents will likely choose to incubate their children with companies that specialize in procreation. Such facilities will be:

  • well-guarded

  • earthquake/fire resistant

  • temperature controlled

  • protected by on-site backup power

  • located in stable, prosperous countries

  In addition, external wombs will protect the fetus from risks imposed by the mother herself, such as:

  • falls

  • car accidents

  • physical assault

  • drug / alcohol abuse

  • poor diet

• Better timing of childbirth. Parents will be able to delay childbearing until they are emotionally and financially stable without risk of birth defects caused by age-related decline in quality of eggs and sperm.

• Lower cost of childbirth compared to the alternatives (natural childbearing, surrogacy).

• Less damage to women's careers due to taking time off for childbearing.

• Organizations (such as companies, religious communities, NGO's, and governments) will be able to directly bear/raise children. This will allow countries to keep their reproduction rate up, even if parents decide not to have children of their own.

• Less risk of women being coerced or pressured into having children.

Common objections to artificial wombs

"A mother's womb can't be replaced with a silicone bag. There are many unnoticed and under appreciated interactions going on between mother and baby that can't be replicated artificially. And without them the child will likely severe emotional and developmental issues.

The uterine environment is indeed complicated. However, there is nothing in principle that cannot be replicated artificially.

• Is a mother's heartbeat required? Play a recording of a heartbeat.

• Hormones required? Inject hormones into the synthetic embryonic fluid.

• Uterine wall required? Use cadaveric uteruses or uteruses from genetically modified pigs.

Researchers are already seeking FDA approval to run clinical trials for artificial womb technology..

Vitara Biomedical in Philadelphia has raised US$100 million to commercialize their Extra-uterine Environment for Newborn Development (EXTEND) technology.

While the EXTEND technology can't currently be used to support development from fertilization to birth, it's not hard to see that such technology could be developed.

In any case, the SafeWomb prizes exist to a. incentivize the research necessary to understand how natural wombs work b. replicate those processes in artificial wombs c. commercialize the technology.

God also told us women that childbirth was our burden to bear. We cannot run from it.

The Christian God's injunction was“Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28).

I see nothing in the Bible that forbids artificial wombs. It seems rather arrogant for someone to claim to know the mind of God, in the absence of explicit instructions otherwise.

Indeed, perhaps God wants humanity to create artificial wombs. God does not seem to have opposed the development of other technologies that make childbirth safer/easier, such as antibiotics, sterile technique, and anesthetics.

Birth rates are below replacement in almost all developed countries on Earth (Israel is the sole exception). Perhaps God is inspiring scientists to create artificial wombs so that we can more easily fulfill our biblical injunction to populate the earth with His children.

I'm not as familiar with other world religions (Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism) but I'm not aware of any religious injunctions against artificial wombs in those religions either.

There’s a bonding that happens in the womb. There’s a difference between an embryo being outside the womb for five days and having an entire 9 months pregnancy away from the mother.

Some bonding no doubt does happen during pregnancy. However, it seems to me that most of the bonding happens after birth.

For example, fathers normally bond to their children as well, and obviously that bonding doesn't require giving birth.

Most adoptive parents are bonded to their children.

A woman who was clinically braindead for much of her pregnancy, was still able to give birth to a healthy child.

Women have also given birth with uterine transplants.

If women can give birth to healthy babies despite being brain-dead or using another woman's uterus, it doesn't seem that intrauterine bonding is a hard requirement.

I'm not willing to risk the untold amounts of human suffering and barbaric experimentation to achieve such an arrogant and pointless endeavor. You speak so flippantly about the inevitable mountain of dead and deformed infants that will be needlessly sacrificed in an attempt to reverse engineer pregnancy for literally no reason other than for it to be a monument to man's perverted hubris. It is monstrous and wholly unnecessary.

No medical technology is perfect, especially early prototypes. For example, in 1924, a German doctor named George Haas was the first person to perform dialysis on human patients. All of the first six patients died soon after treatment.. This was due in part to allergic reactions to hirudin, an anti-coagulant that was derived from leech saliva. It was only after he switched to using heparin that he achieved somewhat longer survival.

Likewise, some infants may well be injured or die to failures of the technology. There are likely many critical "unknown unknowns" yet to be discovered.

However, I don't think development of artificial wombs will cause harm to a large number of infants.

Artificial wombs will be perfected in animals first, such as mice, pigs, and primates. While animal models are not perfect, and sometimes differ in important ways from humans, they're similar enough that we can address most problems before the technology is even tried in humans.

Only after the technology has been proven reliable and in animals, will artificial wombs become available to women. Early patients will be women who have no other choice: lose the baby or try an artificial womb.

For example:

• Women with previously un-diagnosed uterine deformities

• Car accident victims

• Cancer patients

Only after the technology has been proven to work reliably for patients with nothing to lose, will it likely to be made available to the general public.

Once the technology is perfected, artificial womb technology will be normalized (the same way that IVF, anesthesia, and blood transfusions are now routine).

In fact, I predict that people will likely view giving birth the "natural way" as foolishly risky behavior, like riding a motorcycle or drinking raw milk.

The SafeWomb Prizes

The SafeWomb Prizes are a sequence of prizes designed to accelerate the development and commercialization of artificial wombs. The prizes will be issued in the form of social policy bonds, in order to foster cooperation instead of competition.

Social policy bonds were invented by economist Ronnie Horesh, who defines them as follows:

"Social Policy Bonds are non-interest bearing bonds, redeemable for a fixed sum only when a targeted social objective has been achieved. The bonds are backed by government or private bodies, auctioned on the open market, and freely tradable at all times. "

For example, a single SafeWomb bond might look something like this:

Terms: Foster the development of a small mammal (mouse, rabbit, etc) from fertilization to birth in an artificial womb. (See full details below).

Deadline: Jan. 1, 2025

Judges:

[

▶ Watch on YouTube

]

Payment: $100.

Return address: [wallet address]

People who think they can help meet the terms of the prize will buy the bonds at auction.

If the terms are of the prize are met by the deadline, the owner of the bond gets $100.

If the terms aren't met by the deadline, the bond expires and the donated funds automatically return to the donor's return address.

Unlike traditional prizes--which pay only the winning team--social policy bonds pay their owners when anyone, anywhere meets the terms of the prizes. As a result, everyone who owns the bonds is incentivized to share information as quickly and widely as possible.

Here's the outline of the plan to implement the prizes:

1. Spread the word about the idea. Get feedback on the plan, order of operations, recruit volunteers, etc.

2. Create the SafeWomb Foundation, a 501c3 to handle tax deductible donations.

3. Recruit software developers to write the software for the creating, issuing, trading, judging, and settling social policy bond.

4. Publicize the prizes.

5. As donations flows in, create social policy bonds that are backed by the donations and auction them off.

6. When someone thinks they've met the terms of one of the prizes, review their supporting documentation, and make a judgement regarding whether the terms of the prize are met.

7. If the terms have been met, trigger the release of the funds to the bondholders.

One goal is for the SafeWomb to be available to people all around the world, including places which are poor and do not have a high tech medical ecosystem.

Therefore, in order to win each prize, the artificial womb must be:

• unburdened by patent or copyright claims

• open source software / open hardware

• constructed with parts and materials commercially available to the average United States citizen

• constructed by someone with commonly available tools

• use consumables (embryonic fluid, hormones, etc) that are commercially available to the average citizen

• well-documented

The final prize amounts are yet to be decided. However, they might be something like this:

PrizeModelAmountSmall Mammalmouse, rabbit, rat, etc1 millionLarge Mammalpig, cow, sheep, etc3 millionPrimatechimpanzee, gorilla, etc5 millionHuman10 million

How you can help

If you'd like to help, please sign up for this newsletter; I will be posting updates to subscribers as I make progress on this project.

In addition, you can help as follows:

1. Spread the word about the prizes. Forward the idea to people who might be up for helping (either as volunteers, donors, programmers, etc).

2. Donate to the SafeWomb Prize.

3. Support legislation / legislators in favor of artificial wombs.

4. Connect fertility labs to potential VC's, foundations, and government research grants that could provide the financing.

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