Artificial Uterus - in Fiction

In Fiction

The use of the artificial uterus has played a significant role in science fiction:

• The most famous depiction was by Aldous Huxley in his 1932 novel, Brave New World. In Huxley's dystopian future, children are grown in artificial wombs before being decanted into the world. It described a centrifugal pump that kept a liquid of hog's stomach extract and fetal foal’s liver moving over the placenta and driving it through a synthetic lung and waste product filter. This approach is not applicable to clinical medicine because a placenta attached to a uterus is not detachable as a viable organ.
• A far-future version of artificial reproduction was featured in the Arthur C. Clarke novel The City and the Stars (1956) where the citizens of Diaspar, the ultimate city, emerge from the Hall of Creation as young adults, live for 1,000 years, then return to the Hall of Creation where their chosen memories are stored and the people disincarnated. At some future time, determined by the Central Computer, they will be embodied again.
• A scenario similar to Huxley's is true for Logan's Run, where embryos are extracted from impregnated women to be grown in meccano-breeders by a computer-controlled life-support system.
• Philip K. Dick discusses synthetic wombs in his novel The Divine Invasion.
• In Frank Herbert's Dune, axlotl tanks are semi-artificial uteri, women turned into biological factories used to create ghola clones and later the spice melange.
• In Frank Herbert's 1966 novel Destination:Void plants are bio-engineered to serve as wombs.
• In Star Wars: Episode II on the planet Kamino a vast complex makes hundreds of thousands of human clones. It has revolving hubs of laboratory flasks (artificial uteri) containing developing embryos in nutrient solution. They will serve as soldiers for the Republic and to aid the Jedi, who would otherwise be largely outnumbered against the separatist droid armies.
• The 1982 movie Tomorrow's Child plotline is about the first baby born from an articial uterus.
• In the short-lived 1990s science fiction television series Space: Above and Beyond, the InVitros are a genetically engineered race of people gestated in large laboratory flasks that serve as artificial uteri.
• The 1999 movie The Matrix also features the artificial gestation of humans.
• The artificial uterus has made an appearance in the Gundam series: in Gundam Wing, one of the main characters Qautre Rababa has 29 sisters that were born from artificial uterus; in Gundam SEED, Kira Yamato is designated the Ultimate Coordinator because he was grown from an artificial uterus.
• In the NOW Comics The Terminator comic book series in the 1980s, John Connor's resistance forces utilize artificial uteri to continue human reproduction so that the women in their fighting force do not need to be immobilized by pregnancy.
• In David Weber's Honorverse series, fetuses are routinely "tubed" in artificial uterus. Some characters, such as Allison Harrington, refrain from using this option because of moral scruples.
• In Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga, artificial uteri, called uterine replicators are widely used, and body births are considerably out of favor on most technologically advanced worlds, to the extent that Miles Vorkosigan disgusts some Cetagandan women by mentioning that his cousin Ivan was born from his mother's body. Miles was himself gestated in a uterine replicator. Ethan of Athos features an all-male world in which men use artificial uteri to reproduce. Children are grown in and birthed from uterine replicators.
• In The Island, cloned humans are grown to adults in artificial uteri to harvest organs.
• In Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ayanami Rei is cloned from Ikari Yui and grown through some method of artificial reproduction. Much of the pseudo-technology in this series is a product of utilizing artificial propagation.
• In the anime Ergo Proxy, artificial wombs are featured, which are the origin of all inhabitants of the dome city Romdo.
• In the Battletech Universe, almost every warrior of each of the Clan factions is born in an artificial uteri. In development they undergo a process that ensures their complete genetic health. They call themselves Truebirths, and feel they are superior to all who were born naturally, whom they call Freebirths.
• In Kyle XY Kyle and Jessi are grown in an artificial womb created by Adam Baylin - Kyle's Genetic Donator.
• In the video game Hitman franchise, Dr.Ort-Meyer's clones are made out of artificial wombs.
• In the 1995 movie Species, Sil, an alien-human hybrid, is grown in an artificial womb.
• In the 2009 movie Splice, Dren, an animal-human hydrid, is also grown in an artificial womb.
• In the 2009 movie Avatar, The Avatars are grown in artificial amnio tanks during the travel time to Pandora.
• In 2011 Book Wombs, Unoccupied space craft equipped with artificial wombs are dispatched to find and inhabit new planets.
• In The Naked Sun, a 1957 novel by Isaac Asimov, chapter 11, we find that every fetus on planet Solaria is grown in such devices starting from one month after conception.
• In Babylon 5, Lyta Alexander's memories reveal that the Vorlons have been using artificial wombs to grow foetuses of several species, including Humans, Drazi and Centauri, as a way of introducing the gene for telepathy into those species.
• Damian Wayne, Bruce Wayne & Talia Al Ghul's son is a product of this and genetic manipulation. Talia hid Damian's existence from his father, until she found it reasonable for her own means. He is currently acting as his father's sidekick Robin and in an alternate future shown to take up his father's title.