#1222 Teresa Baron: The Artificial Womb on Trial
RECORDED ON SEPTEMBER 17th 2025.
Dr. Teresa Baron is an Assistant Professor at Nottingham University working on reproductive ethics and philosophy of parenthood. She is the author of The Philosopher’s Guide to Parenthood, Philosophy of the Family: Ethics, Identity and Responsibility (with Dr. Christopher Cowley), and The Artificial Womb on Trial. She is currently writing on the ethics of ectogenic research and editing a new Handbook of Philosophy and the Family for Routledge.
In this episode, we focus on The Artificial Womb on Trial. We talk about what artificial womb technology is and the ethical questions it raises. We discuss arguments for and against developing this kind of technology. We discuss the Convergence Argument. We talk about trials with animals, partial and complete ectogenesis, and how it compares to technologies like in vitro fertilization and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) transfer. Finally, we discuss whether it would ever be ethical to bring children into the world for the purposes of research, and the ethics of procreation.
Time Links:
Intro
What is artificial womb technology?
The ethical questions artificial wombs raise
Arguments for developing artificial wombs
Arguments against
The Convergence Argument
Trials with animals
Partial and complete ectogenesis
IVF
Creating children for the purposes of research
The ethics of procreation
Follow Dr. Baron’s work!
Follow Dr. Baron’s work:
University page: https://tinyurl.com/yeytfrcd
Website: https://www.teresabaron.co.uk/
PhilPeople profile: https://tinyurl.com/2ecs3snk
The Artificial Womb on Trial: https://tinyurl.com/t3ckb2tw