{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,14]],"date-time":"2026-07-14T19:46:42Z","timestamp":1784058402654,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":30,"publisher":"Wiley","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,16]],"date-time":"2025-07-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1752624000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["onlinelibrary.wiley.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Bioethics"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,11]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>ABSTRACT<\/jats:title><jats:p>Artificial womb (AW) prototypes are currently being developed with the aim of improving the medical care of extremely premature infants. Despite the seemingly imminent reality of partial ectogenesis (i.e., gestation partially outside a human womb), there is persisting debate about the moral status of the fetus transferred in an AW\u2014henceforth, the \u201cdeveloping entity.\u201d For some, AWs are simply another neonatal intensive cares\u2019 technology. Thus, developing entities in AWs should deserve the same protections as newborns in incubators. Others consider that AWs are fundamentally different technologies than incubators. Therefore, they believe that developing entities in AWs are new moral entities. These differences in perception generate disagreement about how developing entities in AWs should be treated and how decisions about them should be made. We argue that developing entities in AWs should be considered patients by transposing Chervenak and McCullough's \u201cThe fetus as a patient\u201d proposition to the context of partial ectogenesis. As pregnant persons will have to consent to transfer their fetuses in AWs, and this technology will ultimately present itself as a beneficial medical intervention for viable developing entities in AWs, these latter would be patients, even if they are not legally and morally recognized as person. Thus, the moral obligations of beneficence and non\u2010maleficence owed by physicians to their patients would apply to entities in AWs, ethically guiding their treatment and decision\u2010making toward them.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1111\/bioe.70021","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,17]],"date-time":"2025-07-17T02:44:56Z","timestamp":1752720296000},"page":"850-855","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Considering the Developing Entity in an Artificial Womb as a Patient"],"prefix":"10.1111","volume":"39","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0006-6636-4351","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Fr\u00e9d\u00e9rique","family":"Drouin","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Social and Preventive Medecine University of Montreal Montr\u00e9al Quebec Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Alice","family":"Cavolo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine University of Zurich Canton of Zurich Switzerland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Vardit","family":"Ravitsky","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Social and Preventive Medecine University of Montreal Montr\u00e9al Quebec Canada"},{"name":"The Hastings Center Garrison New\u2010York USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Charles","family":"Dupras","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Social and Preventive Medecine University of Montreal Montr\u00e9al Quebec Canada"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"311","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,16]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_8_2_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/15265161.2022.2048738"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_3_1","unstructured":"S.Kirkey \u201cArtificial Wombs Are on the Way. Will They Change Abortion Rights? They Change Abortion Rights? \u201dNational Post January 2 2024."},{"key":"e_1_2_8_4_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/medethics-2020-106754"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_5_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1002\/pd.5821"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_6_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3138\/ijfab.13.2.18"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_7_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1186\/s12910-021-00630-6"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_8_1","unstructured":"N.Main \u201cArtificial \u2018Womb\u2019 for Premature Babies Could Be Available This Year After 300 Tests With Lamb Prove Successful\u2014Bringing Hope to 15 Million Preterm Infants Born Each Year \u201dDaily Mail January 4 2024."},{"key":"e_1_2_8_9_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/d41586-023-02901-1"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_10_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2147\/RMHP.S358553"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_11_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/medethics-2018-104910"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_12_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/bioe.12717"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_13_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1055\/s-2003-45383"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_14_1","first-page":"3","volume-title":"Moral Status: Obligations to Persons and Other Living Things","author":"Warren M. 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