Britt Jones
Making babies is something you may have considered to be an exclusive process on Earth, but apparently, there’s no law against doing it in space.
A new study has addressed the possibility that people will be able to have babies on commercial space flights one day.
The report was produced by an international expert group consisting of reproductive medicine, aerospace health and bioethic experts, and believes conception in space will soon be possible.
Published in Reproductive BioMedicine Online, it was lead by Giles Palmer from the International IVF Initiative Inc, who noted that 'two scientific breakthroughs reshaped what was thought biologically and physically possible - the first Moon landing and the first proof of human fertilisation in vitro'.
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"Now, more than half a century later, we argue in this report that these once-separate revolutions are colliding in a practical and underexplored reality," Palmer said of the new research.
"IVF technologies in space are no longer purely speculative. It is a foreseeable extension of technologies that already exist."
Much more is now accessible thanks to technological change.
Though there are certain risks that need to be considered for astronauts and space travelers.
Calling space 'a hostile environment' for human biology thanks to its altered gravity, radiation exposure as well as circadian cycle disruption, the nine authors wrote that despite animal models showing short-term exposure to radiation messes with female menstrual cycles, there is no such data available when it comes to astronauts and their fertility.
What they do know is that women from the Shuttle missions went on to have pregnancy rates and complications around the same amount as women on Earth.
But this doesn’t include data from women who were exposed for long times to space, nor does it know how women would fare if they spend years in space.
The authors revealed that to find out if it’s safe, they need this information 'to guide diagnostic, preventive, and therapeutic strategies in extraterrestrial environments'.
“As human presence in space expands, reproductive health can no longer remain a policy blind spot,” said Dr Fathi Karouia, senior author of the study and a research scientist at NASA.
“International collaboration is urgently needed to close critical knowledge gaps and establish ethical guidelines that protect both professional and private astronauts - and ultimately safeguard humanity as we move toward a sustained presence beyond Earth."
The report claimed, ‘extended time in space poses potential hazards to the reproductive function of female and male astronauts, including exposure to cosmic radiation, altered gravity, psychological and physical stress, and disruption to circadian rhythm’, which needs to be researched before making ‘space babies’.
So, it looks like it’s off the cards for now.