The Vorkosigan Companion - Lillian Stewart Carl [47]
In Ethan of Athos, the world on which the story begins is comprised of only males. Again, advanced reproductive technology allows the entire population of Athos to be maintained by Reproductive Centers where the sperm of potential fathers is collected and used to fertilize eggs from ovarian cultures that have lasted over two hundred years.
The Vorkosiverse also has other advanced biological technologies, such as cryonics (being brought back from death after being specially frozen) and the eidetic memory biochip implanted in Simon Illyan's head that ends up being the target of sabotage, the consequences of which are very far-reaching (Mirror Dance, Shards of Honor, Memory). Not to be forgotten are the live cat blanket that purrs, likes to half-strangle one in sleep, and is associated with a murder plot (Brothers in Arms, Winterfair Gifts); the genetically beautified (and metabolically modified) butter bugs (A Civil Campaign); and a kitten tree in Cetaganda.
The kitten tree is not even the most impressive of the Cetagandans' biological innovations, as they are a multi-planetary civilization run by master gene manipulators. Though this list of biological technologies that exist in the Vorkosiverse is far from complete, this article will focus on four of the main technologies whose influence is felt throughout the Vorkosiverse series.
A prominent feature of the Vorkosiverse is the uterine replicator technology. The uterine replicator is a piece of technology that frees women from pregnancy and allows men to have babies without women around. This piece of high-tech scientific equipment is used by Bujold in a wide variety of ways.
A particular uterine replicator is the most important object in the universe in one of her books (Barrayar); a slew of them cause an entire series of catastrophic events in another (Diplomatic Immunity); and the technology itself is the basis of life for the inhabitants of an entire planet in yet a third (Ethan of Athos), and those are just a few examples.
In some areas of the Vorkosiverse, there is a choice between a traditional pregnancy (called a "body birth") and a uterine replicator. If a couple wishes to have a baby by uterine replicator, the sperm from the father fertilizes the egg from the mother in vitro (in the lab) to create a zygote. After a few cell divisions, the zygote becomes a blastula. In a female, this is the point the embryo would become implanted into the uterus. Instead, the blastula created by in vitro manipulation is implanted into a uterine replicator. The embryo then grows into a baby in the uterine replicator and is "decanted" rather than birthed at the end of the process. The replicator must be monitored and maintained (addition of nutrients, elimination of wastes, etc.) throughout the ex vivo pregnancy, but is completely independent of the mother's body. Naturally, this kind of technology could have huge repercussions on society and even the direction of further human evolution. Bujold has depicted some of these fascinating possible outcomes and worlds for us.
How close is this kind of technology to what is done today? Recent research into in vitro fertilization (IVF) has allowed the discovery of many of the factors essential for the initial stages of embryonic development, and research into helping premature babies survive has allowed babies born after as few as twenty-four weeks of gestation to live. The gap between a few days and twenty-four weeks must be overcome before a baby can be produced completely outside the mother. However, researchers have recently been experimenting with improving IVF rates by co-culturing the fertilized human eggs with endometrial cells from the lining of the womb before transferring the blastocysts to the mothers.
In other experiments, the same group has produced tiny artificial wombs by growing these endometrial cells in a collagen matrix, which allows the cells to form a plug with a 3-D structure. They have even added fertilized eggs to these uterus-like plugs of cells and found that the