In 2020, Rebecca Flyckt and colleagues published “First Birth from a Deceased Donor Uterus in the United States: From Severe Graft Rejection to Successful Cesarean Delivery,” hereafter “First Birth from a Deceased Donor,” in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. In the article, Flyckt and colleagues explain that they performed one of the first uterus transplantations with a uterus from a deceased donor in the United States and detail how they did so successfully. All deceased donors in the study were considered brain-dead, not cardiac-dead. Uterus transplantation from a deceased donor is a surgical procedure in which a researcher transplants a healthy uterus from a brain-dead, deceased donor into a recipient with a diseased or absent uterus. Prior to 2020, researchers performed several uterus transplantations with live donors that resulted in live births, but there was only one recorded live birth from a deceased uterus donor. Flyckt and colleagues provide summary data about uterus transplantations from deceased donors and compare the efficacy of transplantations from live donors to those from deceased donors. “First Birth from a Deceased Donor” advances the techniques that can make uterus transplants from deceased donors successful, which allows people with uterine disorders the opportunity to become pregnant and have children.

In April 2017, Alan Flake and colleagues published “An Extra-Uterine System to Physiologically Support the Extreme Premature Lamb,” hereafter “An Extra-Uterine System,” in the journal Nature Communications. “An Extra-Uterine System” reports on the development and testing of an artificial uterus system to keep alive prematurely born animals. Prematurity, or birth prior to thirty-seven weeks of gestational development, is the global leading cause of death in children under the age of five years. The artificial uterus technology, which the authors call the Biobag, is a flexible, sealable container. It’s filled with fluid and nutrients, which replicate the environment of a uterus, the organ where a fetus typically develops. Flake and colleagues showed that their Biobag technology could keep eight premature fetal lambs alive for up to four weeks. “An Extra-Uterine System” provoked discussion among scientists and the public about the possible use of the technology to improve survival rates for premature infants and the ethics of possible future uses of the technology.

James Daniel Hardy was a surgeon and researcher practicing in the United States during the twentieth century who studied organ transplantation, or the transfer of an organ from a donor to another individual. In 1963, he performed one of the first recorded lung transplants from a human lung donor. The transplant was successful for three weeks before the patient died of kidney failure. In 1964, Hardy also performed one of the first human heart transplants with a chimpanzee donor, and the transplanted heart pulsed for ninety minutes in the patient’s chest prior to death. He also collaborated on one of the first successful uterus and ovary transplants in a dog, in 1966. Hardy’s research on organ transplantation helped paved the way for improved forms of the technique, which as of 2025 saves the lives of millions of people every year.

In 2015, Mats Brännström and colleagues published “Livebirth after Uterus Transplantation” in the journal The Lancet. In “Livebirth after Uterus Transplantation,” Brännström and colleagues explain that they conducted one of the first uterus transplantations that resulted in a live birth, and they detail how they did so successfully. Uterus transplantations are a surgical procedure in which surgeons transplant a uterus from an eligible donor into a recipient with uterine infertility disorders, or UFIs, such as an absent or diseased uterus. Women with UFIs can neither conceive nor carry a pregnancy to term naturally, so uterus transplantations remain one of the only treatments available that offer them the possibility to become pregnant as of 2025. Prior to 2013, researchers worldwide had performed human uterus transplantations, but the procedures had not resulted in any reported live births. “Livebirth after Uterus Transplantation” shows that uterus transplantations can allow women with uterine infertility, which affects one in 500 women of reproductive age, the opportunity to experience pregnancy.

In 1924, John Burdon Sanderson Haldane, aka JBS Haldane, published Daedalus; or Science and The Future, hereafter Daedalus, which was a written version of a lecture that he gave in 1923. In his book, Haldane offers his personal predictions about what science will be able to achieve by the year 2073. He proposes that scientists will be able to perform ectogenesis, which he defines as the gestation of an organism in an artificial environment. He argues that the development of ectogenesis will help improve the human species by facilitating the selective breeding of individuals with desirable traits. Haldane’s vision of ectogenesis in Daedalus foreshadowed in vitro fertilization, or IVF, an assisted-reproductive technology in which scientists fertilize an egg in a laboratory dish, then implant the resulting embryo into a woman’s uterus where it then develops into a fetus. As of 2025, physicians deliver over 500,000 infants per year who were conceived using assisted-reproductive technologies such as IVF. Haldane’s concept of ectogenesis as he described it in Daedalus inspired both supportive and critical responses among readers and has shaped discussions about reproductive technologies down to the present day.

In 1970, Shulamith Firestone, a self-described radical feminist and writer, published The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution, hereafter The Dialectic of Sex. In the book, she argues for the replacement of natural reproduction with artificial reproduction in order to provide women liberation from their reproductive biology. Firestone envisions a day when scientific technology will enable children to be conceived and grown completely outside of a woman’s uterus, what scientists call ectogenesis. At the time of publication, the technology to enable ectogenesis did not exist, although forms of assisted reproduction, such as in vitro fertilization and intrauterine insemination, were starting to be developed. The Dialectic of Sex was one of the first feminist publications supporting ectogenesis, and, as of 2025, it continues to stimulate thinking among many researchers and ethicists who study the implications of new reproductive technologies for women.

Over the past few decades, female infertility rates have been steadily increasing. As of 2025, various infertility treatments, including IVF and artificial insemination, exist that enable some otherwise infertile women to experience pregnancy. However, those available treatments rely on women to have a uterus. Although the majority of women are born with a typical functioning uterus, between 3-5% of women worldwide have uterine factor infertility, a medical condition where women either do not have a normal functioning uterus or completely lack a uterus. Experimentation with uterus transplantations and artificial uteruses have begun as potential treatment options. This research project explores the evolution of infertility treatments to understand the ethical and social implications of these developing uterine technologies. I conducted this research as a member of the Embryo Project Encyclopedia, an open access resource focused on effectively communicating scientific topics of reproduction, embryology, and developmental biology to diverse public audiences. My analysis revealed that anatomical research concerning the uterus’ function began between the antiquity era and the Renaissance. By the end of the seventeenth century, intellectuals understood the morphology and reproductive function of the uterus and other female reproductive organs; however, no treatments existed to remedy infertility. Over the next three centuries, researchers began to experiment with artificial insemination and IVF, which eventually overcame ethical criticisms to become common medical practices by the end of the twentieth century. My findings reveal that uterus transplantations and artificial uteruses will likely follow the historical trends of previous reproductive technologies and become future medical practices.