Japanese firm offers expectant parents 3D-printed fetus from MRI scan

Tomohiro Kinoshita with 3D model of 9-month fetus in acrylic resin, and small phone charm. Photo: AFP.

A firm in Japan is offering expectant moms and dads the ability to purchase a 3D-printed model of their unborn child, for about $1200 USD. The "Shape of an Angel" is about 9cm, in white resin, encased in a transparent block that forms the shape of the mother's body. The modeling data comes from an MRI scan.

"As it is only once in a lifetime that you are pregnant with that child, we received requests for these kind of models from pregnant women who... do not want to forget the feelings and experience of that time," said Tomohiro Kinoshita of FASOTEC, the company offering the service.

It comes with a tiny little version version that can be used as a mobile phone trinket (young women in Japan often dress up their phones with little dangly adornments). More in the Australian paper The Age. (HT: @Gromit01)

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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mtdna

It would be awesome with twins!
http://twitter.com/incarnedine_v Dan Hibiki

how about an inverse version? You can make a Jello mold!
- http://www.matthewpetty.com/ Matthew Petty
  
  great for Halloween!
GregS

Does it also come in a zombie version?
http://twitter.com/WpgCameraMan Rock Hardwood

Give that thing a huge dong…
- http://twitter.com/the_damned_fool the damned fool
  
  The image on the coffee cup in the background does seem to have a very large finger. Wait, that’s not a coffee cup…
http://www.facebook.com/people/Marc-Mielke/100001114326969 Marc Mielke

It’s sweet, but if something were to go wrong it would be the SADDEST THING EVER.
- blueelm
  
  By month nine anything going wrong would be the saddest thing ever anyway.
LogrusZed

Cadbury should start putting 3D printed chicks, bunnies, and little babies with beards (because Jesus) inside their eggs. Make them out of marzipan, while you’re at it.

/I know this isn’t really related, but that critter reminded me of a Cadbury Creme Egg guts.
Jonbly Herbert

First glance and “Wow, that’s a novel design for a mouse”.
Boundegar

Horrifying. This reminds me of Eraserhead.
- http://lemoutan.blogspot.com/ Lemoutan
  
  Thank you.
Al

What they’re not telling everyone is that they’re secretly using a stock MRI scan and have 50,000 of these boxed up in a warehouse at a cost of $.63/piece and the MRI machine that you enter was a broken-down TSA body scanner left by the side of the road. I mean, cause I can certainly see how that fetus has very distinct features that only a parent would recognize.
Halloween_Jack

Let me get this straight: some Japanese women are sporting trinkets shaped like miniature versions of their own unborn fetuses, surrounded by clear plastic in the shape of their own nude genital regions.

…are you sure that we’re not living in a William Gibson story?
Alexander Ho

Print these with flavored meat!
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  And make them into a dress for Lady Gaga?
Lloyd Miller

In Japan, pregnancy is “once in a lifetime”?!?!?
- benher
  
  “with THAT child” Try reading to the end of the sentence. Jeez, and I thought I was always the one in a snark-hurry.
benattenborough

I don’t know whether to think cool or freaky or both? Making them edible as Alexander Ho suggests is just beyond my understanding…
orangedesperado

Can they make forms from ultrasounds of cysts and tumors ? For us non-reproductive types to share at parties, or whatever a person is supposed to do with this paperweight like thing .

Wait till the anti-choice types get their hands on this technology. Fetal shaped confetti to assault clinic goers, etc. Or something.
- BillStewart2012
  
  The pro-life people have been handing out plastic fetus dolls for decades. Life-size, about 2 or 3 month stage, fingers and toes and everything. We were able to show my niece what her baby looked like, and as somebody commented above, it’s amazingly sad when everything goes wrong after that (even if it’s not a picture of your own kid.)
V

ok, is it just me, or did anyone else see the fetus model at fist glance as packaged meat rather than acrylic?

Ok, it’s just me.

nevermind…
dmc10

I vote weird and freaky.
http://www.facebook.com/johnajuana John Juan

Now the whiteman republicants can pass laws un Kentucky to requeer you to purchase a 3d printed fetus of yer abortion.
Michael Euzent

it looks like a steak at the grocery store, complete with styrofoam tray and plastic wrap.
http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns

This will take off in Utah.
http://avarana.blogspot.com MarlboroTestMonkey7

Make it glow in the dark and they’ll sell millions!
MelSkunk

Isn’t it basically close to being out at 9 months? Can’t you wait a few more weeks?
- Jamie Norwood
  
  Trust me, they are much cuter inside. Outside, and you have to deal with the neverending stream of poop and puke. I would have used one of these to stare at longingly and think, ‘Dear dog, why did we decide to do this?’
bloodybl

Tacky ideas for tacky people, I love it!