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.

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.