Reports surfaced in August about the development of what was described as the world’s first “pregnancy robot” in China. The prototype, according to Asian media, featured a humanoid form with an artificial womb designed to carry a fetus for nine months and then deliver it.

Dr. Zhang Qifeng, founder of Kayiwa, a company based in Guangdong province, discussed the concept in an interview on Duoyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. He stated, “Some people don’t want to get married but still want a ‘wife’; some don’t want to be pregnant but still want a child. So, one function of our ‘robot wife’ is that it can carry a pregnancy.”

Following widespread attention online, Kayiwa clarified that it was not actually developing such a device and said Dr. Zhang’s comments had been taken out of context. Dr. Zhang later explained that the pregnancy robot project was overseas and his company was only responsible for manufacturing the humanoid component, not the artificial womb.

The news prompted significant debate on social media. Comments ranged from criticism—“It is cruel for a fetus to be born without connection to a mother,” and “It completely violates human ethics”—to support—“If the price is only half of my annual salary, I would buy it immediately,” “It’s good that women don’t have to suffer,” and “Women have finally been liberated.”

The discussion has highlighted several ethical concerns regarding pregnancy robots. Critics point out that these devices often use female humanoid forms and suggest this could reflect an attempt to replace women in their nurturing roles. Some cite Pope John Paul II’s reference to the “feminine genius” as being at risk if technology bypasses maternal identity and procreative nature.

Radical feminist voices like Andrea Dworkin have also expressed opposition to artificial wombs due to fears they could marginalize women further. Dworkin wrote: “The real question now is, will men, once the artificial womb is perfected, want to keep women around?”

There are additional moral questions if designers attempt conception through IVF methods followed by embryo transfer into robotic wombs. The argument presented is that children should originate within a marital relationship rather than through technological means such as test tubes or robots; this approach aims to protect human dignity and prevent children from being treated as commodities.

Concerns were also raised about surrogacy implications: using robots as gestational carriers may incentivize companies toward high-tech surrogacy models deemed unethical by some commentators.

However, distinctions are made between potential future uses of artificial wombs for medical treatment—such as supporting prematurely born babies—and using them for full-term gestation initiated outside natural conception. When used strictly as advanced incubators for premature infants conceived naturally, such technologies are generally seen as ethically acceptable because they serve therapeutic purposes.

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D., Senior Ethicist at The National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia and priest of the Diocese of Fall River in Massachusetts, summarized these issues by stating that producing human beings via machines crosses ethical boundaries related both to sexuality and respect for life’s origins.