21st Century Necromancer

In the special observation room established by the hospital, Egawa Saho was looking at the little one lying in the incubator with a face full of tenderness and amazement, her own child.

There had been no nine months of pregnancy, no moment of childbirth, but her child had still been born smoothly, and was the first in the world to develop from an embryo outside the mother's body, an experience undoubtedly unique to Egawa Saho among mothers.

She was deeply grateful to Jounouchi Hiromi. Without Jounouchi Hiromi's efforts, both her own life and that of her child would have been difficult to save.

"Doctor Jounouchi, I'm truly grateful! Without you, I might have never been able to see my child," Egawa Saho excitedly expressed her thanks to Jounouchi Hiromi standing beside her, and her husband made the same expression, both bowing to Jounouchi Hiromi in gratitude.

In response to the thanks from Mr. and Mrs. Egawa Saho, Jounouchi Hiromi shook her head and humbly said, "You don't need to thank me. There's really no need, or rather, I should be thanking you for agreeing to let me conduct this experiment on your child, and for your contribution to the advancement of human science."

Because there were cameras filming nearby, Jounouchi Hiromi also had to say some polite words.

Regarding this child, the hospital naturally placed great importance; although the child had been born successfully, proving the Artificial Womb technology could develop a fetus outside the body, whether the technology would impact the infant or leave hidden dangers still needed to be observed.

Therefore, the hospital specially prepared a High-Level observation room, isolating the child alone, and arranged for experts from various departments to conduct medical observation and a series of tests to confirm the child's health condition.

Meanwhile, doctors and scientists from all Japan and even the whole world who knew of the child's birth were rushing over.

Television stations naturally wouldn't miss such important news. Even though the child had been born and the most sensational part had passed, the child's health condition was now more heart-wrenching than whether he could be born safely.

Because if the child could be confirmed healthy with no problems, it would mean humankind could henceforth be liberated from the constraints of maternal reproduction, truly achieving the cultivation of offspring like in science fiction novels, and the population issues troubling humanity could be addressed with a completely new way of thinking.

Even the Japanese Government sent officials to watch over the whole situation closely.

For Japan, already suffering from declining birth rates and negative population growth, if the reliability of this technology could be proven, the government would not mind promoting a new pro-birth policy.

In the eyes of many, not wanting to have children after marriage, with the trouble pregnancy brings, was one of the significant factors they considered.

As for the religious groups that had been protesting before the child's birth, they were now facing police investigations and repression; after all, it was only legal assemblies when permitted by the government, and naturally illegal if not permitted, especially since they had previously caused an attack.

In contrast to the religious groups were the women's rights organizations that supported the event.

From the start, the reporting of this event with Egawa Saho had been guided by women's rights issues, causing widespread social discussion and support, but the narrative gradually shifted towards religion and ethics, and discussions about women's rights were edged out to an almost invisible place.

However, as the Japanese Government began to suppress the violent protests of the religious groups, the voices of women's right organizations grew louder again. With the news of the infant's birth today, several major women's rights organizations in Tokyo had organized many people to gather at the hospital to show their support.

For women, being freed from childbirth was undeniably a very good thing for all women and would have a profound impact on their social status.

Many employers' reluctance to hire women stemmed from the costs of maternity, hence businesses' unwillingness to employ female employees, as well as to hire unmarried or married but childless women.

As it had been said about female doctors, when an employee entered a company or enterprise, the enterprise devoted resources to training. Training a male employee meant he could work tirelessly every day without the company worrying about him taking leave.

But what about female employees? Not to mention their monthly menstruations, just dealing with dating, marriage, and childbirth processes alone meant at least half a year's absence from work, and in this period, the enterprise couldn't fire her or cancel her position because doing so would attract a lot of negative publicity.

And those who returned to work after childbirth were still manageable, especially for large enterprises that could bear such costs. But what if one considered the practice especially popular among Japanese, where women resigned to become full-time housewives upon marriage?

All the resources and efforts spent training talents just vanished? Any enterprise owner would want to explode looking at the financial statements.

But what if childbirth were to become less troublesome? If only two days' leave were needed to visit the hospital for in vitro fertilization, and then let the infant develop in an Artificial Womb without impacting work, it would be such great news for all enterprises.

The solutions to these various issues were not only sought after by women's rights organizations and enterprises but also by the government; this was also one of the reasons the government would suppress protests by religious groups.

With such a method to avoid problems brought by childbirth, the government could vigorously encourage women to work post-marriage instead of tying a massive labor force to domestic life.

Now, everything was waiting for the child's test results. As long as the tests proved the child was healthy, or even if there were no fundamental physiological defects, the government would immediately start the publicity machine, positively promote the technology, push forward the public relations for Jounouchi Hiromi's Nobel Prize, and even related legislation.

This was not Yu Chen's speculation but content told to Yu Chen and Hiromi Jounouchi by the official sent by the Prime Minister.

Furthermore, the official brought research funding specially approved by the Prime Minister—almost unlimited research budget and policy support—as long as Hiromi Jounouchi needed it, any amount of money could come from the government's financial budget. Even if Hiromi Jounouchi needed human trial subjects, the government could provide healthy prisoners from the prison for her to "consume."

However, both Yu Chen and Hiromi Jounouchi refused such things as human experiments; after all, as doctors, they still had ethical lines they would not cross. Even if clinical trials were necessary, they preferred to apply through official channels rather than conducting taboo experiments that treated living people as materials.