306: Are artificial wombs a good idea?

P&C drink and review Cream Team, a cookies and cream milk stout, then discuss "advances" in reproductive technology.  Ectolife is working on creating an artificial womb, where babies can be grown in a production facility. There's been some success with mice, and they want to extend the tech to humans.  The goal is to alleviate some of the pain and risk inherent in childbirth, and to help couples who are unable to reproduce naturally.  It would eliminate premature births, miscarriage, c-sections, and all sorts of complications in pregnancy. The system would also report on genetic abnormalities, and possibly allow doctors to correct them -- or even correct inherited diseases.  It can go even further. You might be able to choose some of your baby's characteristics, like eye and hair color, strength, intelligence, height, etc.  But there are criticisms.  If babies are so easily created, will they be less valued?  There's also no real connection between the mother and child.  It seems like a slippery slope. How far does this go?  Every human that has ever born came from a woman’s body. How will these babies be different?  How will this affect our perception of women?