Recently, two very special baby girls were born at New Hope Fertility Center in New York, USA, who are the world's first test-tube babies who came to the world using "sperm robot" fertilization technology. I personally believe that it may become a "new humanity" in the near future.
The researchers successfully used this robot-assisted IVF technology to realize the human-born technology that fertilized by robots. It is reported that the pregnant mother of the two female babies is very happy, and the female babies are relatively healthy.
Let's first briefly understand IVF technology, which is intended modern reproductive medicine technology, mainly used to treat modern couple infertility, sperm and eggs are fertilized in an external in vitro test tube, and then transferred to the woman's uterus to achieve the purpose of pregnancy.
For many years, the most critical part of human IVF is to inject sperm into the egg, which we call the fertilization process, which was previously done manually, and technicians need to use particularly sophisticated instruments and some special delicate means to process sperm and eggs. Now, this robot that "conceives" babies is, to put it bluntly, a complete set of system equipment to assist this process.
Spanish startup Overture Life's sperm injection robot can now replace manual test-tube technology to complete this delicate step.
Let's take a look at how the bot works:
My understanding is similar to that of a surgical robot, using a robotic arm that can precisely insert and exit a needle and inject sperm into an artificial petri dish for processing.
Don't underestimate this key step, it can not only greatly improve the sperm fertilization rate, but also avoid sperm contamination and other problems, further improve the success rate of IVF.
Any new type of technology, in the process of promotion and application, has aroused more attention and controversy. Although IVF technology has long been widely used around the world, and now about 500,000 babies are born through IVF every year around the world, most people who need help cannot realize their dreams because of costs and other issues, and the use of robots to complete fertilization can be fully automated.
According to the survey, if you build an IVF clinic, you need to invest at least millions of dollars and hire a professional technical team. It not only improves fertilization efficiency and success rate, but also reduces the burden on medical staff, improves work efficiency, and reduces fertility costs.
However, I personally have deep concerns and strong opposition to this technology and application. The intervention of robots, I think, will definitely weaken human nature and humanized spirit, and robots cannot replace human thinking and emotions. In addition, the use of technology will inevitably bring some serious problems such as social ethics and human morality, such as the source of sperm, the legality of production, the safety of machine operation, whether it will produce mutations, and whether there will be long-term effects on women's reproductive health during conception.
In fact, in recent years, many emerging technologies are also being studied, such as gene editing, reproductive stem cell technology, etc., which are challenging the moral, ethical and legal bottom line of human beings to varying degrees. While scientific and technological progress also requires us to seriously and deeply think about what kind of impact and consequences they will bring to human beings, we must adhere to the humanistic spirit and social conscience, and ensure the harmonious development of science and technology and human society.