Artificial womb technology represents a potentially transformative health innovation in perinatal care, with the capacity to alter current concepts of fetal viability and neonatal treatment. This lecture critically examines the ethical challenges associated with its development and implementation, including implications for reproductive rights, abortion, maternal autonomy, social justice, stakeholder participation, and responsible innovation in healthcare.

Speaker: Emeritus Prof Silke Dyer

Date: 21 October 2026

Time: 13:00 to 14:00

Venue: Neuroscience Institute Auditorium, Groote Schuur Hospital

No RSVP required, in person only.

 

About our speaker

Emeritus Prof Silke Dyer is a specialist gynaecologist and one of Africa's leading voices in reproductive medicine. Following her retirement from full-time clinical practice at Groote Schuur Hospital in October 2025, she continues her academic work at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, focusing on infertility and fertility care, and the wider field of sexual and reproductive health and rights. 

Prof Dyer previously served as Head of the Division of Gynaecology and Deputy Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Groote Schuur Hospital, and holds a PhD and MMed from the University of Cape Town. 

She is the Founder and Director of the African Network and Registry for Assisted Reproductive Technology (ANARA), and Clinical Data Director of the International Committee for Monitoring Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ICMART). She also serves as an observer on the Board of the African Federation of Fertility Societies, and previously sat on the World Health Organization's Scientific and Technical Advisory Group for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research. 

Prof Dyer has published widely in international, peer-reviewed journals and is regularly invited to speak at national, regional and global conferences. Her contributions to reproductive medicine have been recognised with several honours, including the Patrick Steptoe Memorial Lecture and Medal from the British Fertility Society (2022) and an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (2017).