If I were a pregnant woman, I probably wouldn't agree to an arrangement wherein I would have to fly up to space, deliver my baby, and go back down to Earth. It's a crazy idea but SpaceLife Origin believes that it may be the future for childbirth.
They describe the mission as follows:
SpaceLife Origin, based in the Netherlands, wants to send a pregnant woman, accompanied by a “trained, world-class medical team,” in a capsule to the space above Earth. The mission would last 24 to 36 hours.
Once the woman delivered the child, the capsule would return to the ground. “A carefully prepared and monitored process will reduce all possible risks, similar to Western standards as they exist on Earth for both mother and child,” SpaceLife Origin’s website states.
The company has set the year 2024 as the target date for the trip.
If this experiment would become successful, what will be the implications? And if a baby were to be born in space, will that make them space citizens? There are so many legal ramifications that need to be considered before this takes place five years from now. But read on to find out why the company wants to do this.
(Image credit: Luma Pimentel/Unsplash)
This gets more into difference between ethics and morality, as it would seem easier to argue such a project is unethical (especially if considering failure rates of human space flight is probably worse than 0.4%). Even then, from what I remember of the debate around the last revision of the Declaration of Helsinki, things can be less than straightforward. This is how you get differences between things like that Declaration of Helsinki and CIOMS guidelines, and discussion of whether things have swung too far, e.g. whether we should avoid risks of exploitation to the point of increasing medical risks.