According to Xiaoxiang Morning Herald, Dr. Zhang Qifeng, founder of Kaiwa Robotics Technology Company, said in an August interview that his tech team is developing the world’s first surrogacy robot for young people who do not want to endure pregnancy themselves but still want children.
The plan is to implant in the abdomen of a humanoid robot a bio-incubation device that simulates a uterine environment. Through a temperature control system, nutrient delivery, and metabolic waste processing systems, the device would mimic the human pregnancy environment, allowing the “robot mother” to replicate the entire human childbirth process from conception to delivery. Zhang claimed that a prototype will be launched within the next two to three years, with an estimated price of no more than 100,000 RMB (approximately $14,000).
Zhang also stated that he had presented the project to Guangdong Governor Wang Weizhong in May, and has submitted its potential ethical and legal issues for review by the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). He hopes the provincial government will introduce relevant policies and laws to support the project’s implementation. Within just a few hours, the news attracted over 120 million views, was reposted and commented on by 123 media outlets, and sparked widespread public discussion. Most netizens expressed strong support for the development of this technology. A top comment, which received over 11,000 likes, read: “This is great news! In the future, batches of robots can give birth, freeing women’s wombs.” Many female netizens shared that they would definitely buy a surrogacy robot once it is available, believing that pregnancy and childbirth severely harm women’s health and that spending just 100,000 RMB to solve this problem would be well worth it. Opponents, however, argued that the technology Zhang described is completely unrealistic, lacks the backing of animal experiments, and violates human ethics.