Ectogenesis
Bryan Caplan ponders the possible consequences of safe and relatively inexpensive ectogenesis — that is, technology allowing one to grow a fetus in an incubation tank rather than a womb. I doubt this would have any big consequences. Although pregnancy is no doubt a diffcult experience, those difficulties are only very small portion of the costs of raising a child.
One of Bryan’s commenters goes on to wonder, “What if the government could produce humans to order, by efficient industrial means?”, and a number of silly dystopian predictions follow. There is a big difference between efficiently churning out Jem’Hadar and efficiently churning out screaming infants. Any government wanting to use ectogenesis to further its evil plans had better already have an army of loyal people ready to indoctrinate those industrially produced babies and change their diapers.
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