In 2003, Hung-Ching Liu, the director of Reproductive Endocrine Laboratory at Cornell University's Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility in Manhattan had created an almost full-term mouse embryo in an artificial womb. This experiment may have shown a glimpse of the future (perhaps little as 6 years in the future) when human babies can be grown in artificial wombs. This research has launched new controversy between politicians, activists, and desperate would-be parents. Hung-Ching Liu reports that her main intention for the artificial womb was to help barren couples...but others have different ideas on what the use of an artificial womb should be.

Hung-Ching Liu has created a remarkably simple human artificial womb. Liu started creating the womb after first studying the creation of artificial skin, and then used those methods to create the womb. Liu and her co-workers mold a womb-shaped matrix of biodegradable substances such as collagen and...