Ectogenesis

“	Ectogenesis is the way to free women from the tyranny of their reproductive biology.	”
–Shulamith Firestone (January 7, 1945 – August 28, 2012), central figure of the 2nd wave feminism and radical feminism

Ectogenesis is the growth of an organism in an artificial environment. The term was first coined by British scientist J.B.S. Haldane in 1924 and has since been used to describe the process of growing human in an artificial uterus - ie. completely outside of a woman's reproductive organs.

By the year 4005 ectogenesis is the most common mean of reproduction of humans in most of the human colonies, including Earth. In Mars it is also the only legally permissible way of reproduction as the gene pool is completely watched over by the ALIAS regime and has been so for thirteen generations. There are communities though, where all means of artificial reproduction are prohibited, including - most notably - Eden and Novo Brasil arcology on Earth but also other, smaller sects on other planets. Even if ectogenesis has been a "standard procedure" for almost two millennia many people are still willing to risk their health for giving birth in natural means, carrying their offsprings in their wombs.

Development

Various means of ectogenesis on humans have been studied and tested since the late 20th century. The earliest forms included the - relatively - very simple in vitro fertilisation procedures which allowed women unable of getting pregnant because of numerous reasons to get pregnant and carry a child. Promising steps were taken in the early 21st century but the scientists' efforts soon hit the wall of legislature. Theoretical advancement was made nevertheless and ectogenesis on mice, lambs and chimpanzees made significant progress in mid-21st century.

The biggest step - dubbed in the media in its time as the "Miracle of Life" - considering the growth of a human embryo outside of a living host, was the defining necessary amount of hormones given from mother to the baby. The amounts varied from mother to mother and child to child so wildly that even by the end of the 21st century there was very little understanding of the method, it almost seemed like the "miracle of life" was something so beyond the human capacities it would never be understood.

In 2074 with an explicit permission, the very first human brought up in an artificial uterus - completely outside of a human body - was born. John Samuel Smith (January 2nd 2074 - February 25th 2076) was born a healthy boy with large blue eyes in 2nd of January 2074. He became instantly a public figure of the scientific advancement and the eyes of the world turned to him. Sadly enough, his life was short. At the age of few months the child began to suffer from issues with his kidneys and liver. The problems soon turned out to be genetical and more symptoms came up every day. John Samuel Smith died at the age of two because of a complete respiratory failure caused by hypoxemia. John Smith's case had a significant impact on the ectogenesis studies and created an extremely bad public image of it. All similar insemination projects were banned and many countries stopped assigning new ones. It seemed like the studies on ectogenesis had come to an end, the public could not bear tragedies like that of baby John on the matter.

In 2112 a new form of an artificial intelligence was created after years of studies and preparations. Launched in the laboratories of Armonk it spiralled the mankind into a new age of technological innovations and advancement, sometimes referred to as the Post-singularity Age. These advancement in machine thinking allowed the researchers and scientists all over the world to suddenly boost their ideas and studies into the next level, level that had before been on many fields thought impossible to achieve. Same thing happened to the studies related to ectogenesis, field of study that was only practiced by those most enthusiastic about it as it had been frowned upon by the public for a very long time by then.

John II Samuel Smith was born December 27th 2117 in a completely discreet environment, without any form of publicity. He was the first man ever to be brought up by ectogenesis technology and lived for 92 years contributing significant amount of data for the studies related to ectogenesis. As his life and education was guaranteed by the fundation of the scientific group, he himself studied in an university and finally became a professor in the field of genetics. John "Junior" Smith was a gift for the field and his exemplar life led to a wide acceptance of the ectogenesis technologies, regardless of the method's hideous past.

Development of ectogenesis technologies ramped up during the next decades even if no more human samples were cultivated into maturity for a long time in order to preserve the good publicity gained by the success of John "Junior" Smith. The long lobbing of Prof. Smith himself saw the first Martian colonies accompanied by the ectogenesis technologies which were used sparingly. By the time of Mars' colonisation there was still very little knowledge about human impregnation in low-g, not to mention zero-g environment and only few individuals were - allegedly - brought up by ectogenesis.

The earliest means of ectogenesis were brought to consumers in 2183 but these solutions were extremely expensive and a high chance of miscarriage was still present. Launch for the public however allowed the studies to advance into the society, slowly at first. Data extracted of the earliest "ecto-born" humans proved valuable resource for the further progress of the technology and related applications. Technologies related to ectogenesis retained the stigma of being a form of human trials which is thought as the main reason of reluctant adoption of the technology within the public.

Studies and discreet reproduction of human embryos into birth saw the ectogenesis technologies finally emerge as competent option for traditional reproduction methods by the early 23rd century. First (publicly) extensive use of ectogenesis tech was performed during the colonisation of Jupiter's moon Europa in 2248 and its success spiralled the adoption of similar technologies on the next colony projects as well. In 2270 ectogenesis tech was brought on Saturn's moon Titan and the first Jovian and Saturnine generations were (officially) completely brought up in artificial uteruses.

Since then the ectogenesis technologies have taken over the human reproduction. Few women are willing to risk their personal wellbeing and health for pregnancy when options do exist. Later emerging technologies such as sex-filtering and gene-tweaking made ectogenesis even more popular. By the 4005 over half of the humans are born via artificial means.

Use

First societies that adopted the means of artificial reproduction were those of Mars, Jupiter and Saturnus. However, further cultural evolution and shortage of necessary components for running artificial uteruses fault-free were hard to come by on the distant colonies and the method turned into decline in a few decades. On Earth the products used on the space missions attracted a lot of attention and the development of artificial uteruses quickly leaped forward in stability, reliability and design. It was now possible to grow your child in your bedroom and deliver it on the day of your choosing (within reasonable span of time), both without restricting the freedom of the "mother" whose actions had no effects on the well-being of the child.

Mars

Exemplar in the usage of controlled artificial reproduction methods. Beginning from the colonisation, all born-Martians have (officially) been brought up via artificial means. Since the installation of the FRIEND (Forward-thinking Radical Intelligent Evolving Nodal Database) in the Olympus Mons Metro the whole procedure of reproduction has been automated. By the age of 20 years all Martians donate their stem cells for the databanks Olympus Mons which are then stored in cryofacilities to ensure the largest, healthy genepool possible on the colony. Technology is more than capable of creating artificial gametes from the stem cells that may be used to gestate a human child and so there is no need for gamete extraction per se.

Since the installation of ALIAS (Automatic Life-assist Intelligent Administration System) in Neo Arcadia and the birth of the so-called ALIAS-regime, the donated stemcells are thoroughly filtered and cleansed of deviancies. Something that had been thought as a violation of the very basic human rights, right to reproduce. There have since been thirteen generations of Martians, all without genetic disorders or deviancies.

Religious groups

Many religious groups have long since banned all means of ectogenesis as well as assisted reproduction technologies. Colonies with high percentage of religious members have a tendency of avoiding ectogenesis as a mean of reproduction and people born "from the tube" face discrimination. In some places ectogenesis is outright banned, most notably in the Godly Republic of Eden with 1.3 billion inhabitants. Novo Brasil arcology on Earth also has completely banned any means of artificial reproduction.