U.K. first womb transplant

[VestaTilley]

The BBC has reported today that the first womb transplant has taken place in a hospital in England. A 40 year old woman donated her womb to her sister, hopefully enabling her to have children.

AIBU to be concerned about a potential dystopian future where women’s reproductive organs are harvested like car parts?

Journalists are treating this like it’s a positive, with few questions being asked about how the donor is recovering, how the foetus (if the recipient does conceive) will fare if the woman has to continue taking immuno suppressive drugs? Whether there is increased miscarriage risk?

Transplants are supposed to be life saving, not about wish fulfilment. Apparently 10 brain dead women are being lined up for future donation!

To me this all seems part of a bigger picture of surrogacy, synthetic embryo creation (reported earlier this year) and a drive to disassociate women from reproduction and the biology of our sex.

Am I alone in being bothered by this? I wish journalists would look more at the bigger societal picture.

Link here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-66514270

A womb is the most vital organ. Without it, none of us would exist.
I agree it’s not vital to keep you alive, if that’s what you meant!

‘Be Kind’🙄

Cue people taking advantage and kidnapping women, killing them and taking out their wombs to sell them to desperate women looking for children for extortionate amounts.

Seems a bit entitled to me, if you’ve been born without a womb and no previous hope of having any children at all, one child is an absolute miracle but still not enough it seems.

Yes that is what I meant.

Its certainly not the most vital organ at all

BBC reported the first transplant took place almost a decade ago and approximately 50 children have been born to recipients. I feel uncomfortable at the idea of humans "playing god" but equally I am aware I am hypocritical and would accept an organ for my child so for that reason I am a registered donar. I also accept any medication and human intervention. I hope there has been a substantial amount of research into effects the medication would have on an unborn child and the mother for the time they have the womb (The article says after 2 pregnancies it is removed). There will be women who have had other transplants that have gone on to have children also so I can only assume all dangers have been assessed. I don't see it as women harvested for their organs anymore than a woman giving another organ. It is major surgery so makes sense to remove from consenting brain dead women than from live ones. I would not feel the same if women were offered money in exchange for a womb or if coercion took place. Rigorous checks need to remain. Whilst it makes me uneasy I am also fortunate enough to have been pregnant and birthed a healthy child so I cannot image what the women who receive one must feel.

Yes because that’s rife with peoples livers and lungs currently

I mean in the future.

Everyone who is against this I take it you were able to naturally have children of your own?

Why do you assume that?

No I wasn’t. Not being able to have children doesn’t mean you never have any reservations about the ethics of reproductive technology.

I heard this on the radio this morning and it did make me shudder. It seems very un-necessary. Also my first thought when I heard 'womb transplant' was ffs they've put a womb into a man.

I can understand why the sister has done it. I am not against surrogacy which I know is a touchy subject on here. If I was the sister I would have been her surrogate. I remember discussing it once with my sister long before either of us had kids and saying I'd do it for her, she said she wouldn't!

I'll happily donate mine when I die, not sure I'd donate it while alive but if possible and needed I would consider it. I know many people who have struggled to conceieve and/or carry babies, this could be world changing for them.

Hand transplants? Face transplants? Corneal transplants? Cadaver skin transplants?

None of those are life saving.

Are you supporting @Taketurn comment or being sarcastic. Because if it's the latter you might want to do some research and reading on the Chinese organ harvesting industry.

yes I was able to have children naturally without assistance.

However I have concerns about women being reduced to body parts and as incubators.

I would like to hope that there will be tight regulations that prevent this from happening. However I also think that just because we can does not mean that we should.

Yes, this will definitely happen 🙄

It takes a team of highly trained surgeons, years of research and planning, and a 9 hour operation but soon women will just be murdered on the street and have their wombs handed over to someone else.

But they are treatments for disabilities and disfigurements. Not being able to have children is neither of those things.

@NutellaEllaElla

because I can’t understand why somebody dead or alive wouldn’t want to donate their womb to help another woman have children of their own.

Yes because an issue occurring in China is going to be reproduced here

despite organ donation being common in the UK for decades and not many people being kidnapped off the streets and their organs being taken from them

"I feel uncomfortable at the idea of humans "playing god"

So, antibiotics? Infected appendix removal? Vaccines? IVF? CPR?

I presume you eschew all forms of healthcare?

Shh, this goes against the ‘organ donation is for saving lives’ view that many on here seem to weirdly have

There is already an organ trade across the globe. There was a recent case in the UK where a man was brought to the UK with the promise of work but the aim was so that he would provide organs for a child. This already happens. So it is not that far fetched to think that an underground trade in womens organs will happen.

Sure there was a news story of a boy being trafficked to the UK to be a live kidney donor.

There is such a thing as air travel you know.

But fear not there won't be any illegal womb harvesting from white western women.