Baby born after womb transplant

[Wildflowers99]

https://www.thesun.co.uk/health/34329085/womb-transplant-baby-hope/

I’m not really sure how I feel about this.

On one hand it all seems consensual and fine, and nice that they’re all happy.

On the other it seems yet more expansion of surrogacy-type science, making pregnancy/babies a sort of human right that we should go to any lengths to make possible for people. And all the ethical/moral issues around that.

What do you think?

Traffickers will be rubbing their hands with glee!

I honestly think the whole trans thing has done a number on women to the point where many of us are suspicious of anything that seems to benefit women at all, on the grounds that the trans will somehow take it from us

To repeat, there is no market for womb transplants outside of women with very specific conditions. Organ sales are already illegal and this is not going to change for wombs. There’s very little potential for exploitation here

Just to do a proper post with my views:

1. My primary concerns, as with surrogacy and egg donation, are always for the person doing the giving. A hysterectomy is pretty big surgery - is it acceptable to take the risk of haemorrhage etc to fulfil another woman’s wish for a baby? Would you support it if a woman bled out and died on the operating table for a hypothetical baby to have a shot at life? Not to mention the issues around consent - I can imagine a lot of sisters/friends/relatives might feel undue pressure to donate their womb, once they’re finished having children themselves. It feels like there is room for exploitation. There’s also nothing to suggest this won’t become a profitable business in less ethical countries, women selling their wombs who are desperate and impoverished.
2. The consequences for the baby. I’ll have to read more about this but 4.5lb is very small for a term baby - did the womb support the baby adequately? Have studies been done on this?
3. The fact it’s one step closer to trans women demanding wombs. It’s not possible now, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be in future. 50 years ago a womb transplant to another woman would’ve seemed very far off. But the future always arrives.
4. There’s also the wider question of whether a baby is a human right that it is reasonable for other people to take significant health risks to fulfil for another - should you be able to donate anything if ‘consent’ is there? Is it a reasonable ask given infertility is distressing but not physically dangerous or painful?

I think it is yet another step toward a place where female reproductive parts are a commodity and a baby is seen as a human right, or an object to be purchased. That makes me very uncomfortable

There are much less ethical countries out there that British people travel to for services that are illegal here

@Wildflowers99 do you have children?

Yes.

I'm glad it all went well but the ethics here are difficult for me. Her sister has lots her uterus and must have gone into early menopause for a non life saving recently. (I'd rather be a surrogate for a sibling than have my womb cut out of my but that's just me! And I wouldn't be a surrogate!)

What if the sister didn't survive the op?
What if the baby was half grown and then the womb transplant stopped working and the baby wasn't nourished and died? I know people have miscarriage and stillbirths often but if it's an avoidable risk why do we do it?

Will women feel compelled to go into early menopause to give up their own wombs after they have had children of their own now if their sister has a condition like this?

The technology for implanting uteruses will never be around for male people. Unless a complete endocrine and reproductive system can be re-configured or also implanted.

The only thing they can do is treat the uterus as an implanted bag and growth that human with fully exogenous chemicals.

If the womb had come in the same way as most organ transplants (ie from people on life support about to die) I'd feel less weird about it

I agree it would have gone awfully for one of the three people involved

Need is different to want, I'd donate kidney or liver in heartbeat. Hysterectomy is serious major surgery

The problem of trafficking in human beings for organ removal and transplantation is massive. The more common this surgery becomes the more at risk certain communities of women will become.

Most organ transplant occurs due to a risk of death in those receiving the organs. Reproduction is not a human right. This is nothing like organ donation.

If the sister kept her ovaries, and I understand it was only the womb transplanted not the ovaries as well, then she shouldn’t have gone into menopause. I believe there’s a chance it can happen sooner but most likely you would go through menopause a standard age, like any woman who has a hysterectomy but keeps her ovaries

I see no issue with this, the womb was donated by her sister in the same way you could donate a kidney and baby was genetically hers.

Some males have also stated that they would like / have vaginas. They can’t and they don’t. Some might have an open wound kept open through dilation crafted from an inverted penis or a bit of bowel. I suspect for many it fails to live up to expectations.

I imagine the I want a womb brigade will also go through some Frankensteinesque surgeries to create non functional facsimiles.

Interfering too much in mother nature

Having children is not a right. It's about time we stopped letting people believe it is.

It's because this is something that also exclusively EXPLOITS women. Only females can become commodities for this industry. Not men

And the practice also benefits men who otherwise may have limited options for children with their wives. I would argue this does not exclusively benefit women.

If there were a vocal movement of people who fantasise about having 4 kidneys to get twice as strong, should that concern renal transplant surgeons?

Fringe, biologically unsound delusions have no bearing on the ethics of organ transplant.

What if the surrogate is already having a planned hysterectomy and given the option to either bin the womb or help another woman?

Then concern 1 doesn’t apply but 2,3,4 do.

I was just watching it on the news. I think it is incredible.

Who is being exploited here? As with any organ transplant the donated organ will almost always come from a close family member, or perhaps someone who has died.

If you are concerned about people buying organs from poor people abroad, that risk is the same with wombs as it is with any other organ.

Well, for a start, the rest of our bodies are female and produce all the necessary hormones to keep the womb healthy so it can nourish the baby. Where would a womb be transplanted into, in a man? There is no space where the womb should be.

For concern 2 even babies growing in a womb not via transplant can be born low birth weight. It carries risks but woman don’t stop having babies incase theirs is low birth weight.

Your last point, should we stop donating kidneys, parts of liver and all the other organs a living donor can give if they are willing to?

It's been tried, hasn't it? The Danish Girl?