birth

Of all the transhumanist technologies coming in the near future, one stands out that both fascinates and perplexes people. It's called ectogenesis: raising a fetus outside the human body in an artificial womb.

It has the possibility to change one of the most fundamental acts that most humans experience: the way people go about having children. It also has the possibility to change the way we view the female body and the field of reproductive rights.

Naturally, it's a social and political minefield...

The most frequent philosophical issue brought up about ectogenesis is how it might change the way society views women. Will the feminine mystique be lost by such an artificial process replacing what's been long a mainstay of the female domain? My short answer is no; rather, ectogenesis could further unchain women from the home, spare them and extend the age at which women can have children.

...It soon became clear she was going into labour, and three teaching assistants, Dita Gojnovci, Chris Sword and Sam Mustafa, stepped in to help.
The three delivered the baby while taking instructions from paramedics over the phone, as towels and other equipment were gathered from around the school.

The teacher, Diane Krish-Veeramany, was quoted to say, "We now joke (Jonah) was late for his first day at school as he was born after the bell."

This happy couple is spending the rest of her pregnancy in Hawaii, but they're there for business. Baby business. These parents-to-be are planning a dolphin-assisted birth. They will be staying and studying at the Sirius Institute, an organization dedicated to the "dolphinization of the planet," trying to connect with a dolphin pod in preparation for the little Flipper.