Is it true that families who want to have children in the near future will be able to order their babies from a lab according to their wishes and design? No, that's not true: There is no evidence to support the idea that by 2030, children will be ordered from a lab, designed by artificial intelligence, and developed in an artificial womb. There are recent developments in the field of artificial womb technology but this technology is still in its conceptual stage and has not yet been approved for use on humans.
The story appeared in a video (archived here) published on August 19, 2023, under the title "Designer Babies." It opened:
The future belongs to artificially created, designer, laboratory babies. In the future, children will not be born naturally, but will all be ordered from a lab - so-called designer babies. Once "they" succeed in sterilizing absolutely the entire population of the world, families who want to have children will have to have permission from the system to order a designer baby that will grow in an artificial womb. Thanks to artificial intelligence, they will be able to choose the gender, sexual orientation, skin color, eyes, hair and everything will be made according to their wishes and design. The future is in modern, laboratory, designer babies. And would you order and raise such a child, because the year 2030 is coming?
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Thu Sep 7 20:48:08 2023 UTC)
The TikTok story is based on the YouTube video posted on December 9, 2022, called EctoLife: The World's First Artificial Womb Facility. EctoLife is not real, but a concept created by producer and filmmaker Hashem Al Ghaili, who has a background in molecular biology. Social media posts have been sharing the video widely and Bulgaria is mentioned at the 00:40 mark in the video:
EctoLife is designed to help countries that are suffering from severe population decline including Japan, Bulgaria, South Korea and many others.
(Source: YouTube screenshot taken on Fri Sep 8 15:34:29 2023 UTC)
Although the futuristic video looks real, it is merely a piece of science fiction extrapolated from the current state of fertility research. At the end of 2022, Hashem Al-Ghaili told Reuters via e-mail:
This is a concept and not a real-life company.
Designer babies are babies whose genetic makeup has been artificially selected or modified to include specific traits or characteristics. The topic of designer babies and the ethical implications of genetic engineering is not a conspiracy theory, but rather a topic that has raised serious ethical concerns for decades. Most countries have not yet legislated on genetic modification in human reproduction, but of those that have, all have banned it.
