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?

It's an absolutely amazing thing. It's an altruistic transplant from a willing donor, which improves the health of the recipient to the extent she can have a baby.

There are altruistic transplants every day, and there non-life saving but hugely life-improving transplants and other treatments every day. Almost all NHS treatment is not life-saving. It's utterly bizarre to think it should somehow be restricted to that.

As for 'playing god' 'interfering too much with nature' and the 'just adopt' crew, just stop. It's embarrassing.

There are risks to both mother and baby from the immunosuppressant drugs the mother has to take to prevent rejection.

I am generally sorry for anyone who is unable to carry a pregnancy or have a baby.

But that doesn’t mean that I have to agree that they have the right to put someone else’s life at risk, and be part of a process of playing god to do it.

We simply can’t make decisions based on the emotional turmoil of someone else.

What happens if the person donating their uterus dies in or after surgery? Is your desire for a baby worth that?

And before someone says that that was the donor’s decision to make, let’s not kid ourselves that there will be some emotional guilt there in not donating. In the same way that people here are saying nobody is entitled to an opinion who haven’t been through it, so those donors will likely feel that they should donate because they can’t possibly know the heartbreak and so should therefore feel obligated.

I’m infertile. I know the pain of it. You’re the ignorant one.

How do you think that the male body is going to regulate a pregnancy? Even after you have grafted blood vessels and what ever else might be needed?

Unless the ethics change, this is effectively growing a human in a bag, the same as a growing a lamb in a bag. Outside a dystopian world where humans need to do this for our future existence, do you think that it is acceptable to grow a human in a bag fed by mostly exogenous chemicals fed in on a cycle that scientists think will equate the natural cycle of pregnancy? Where there is no interaction possible between the growing human and the mother’s body to deliver what is needed in the exact proportion and timing needed for that specific growing human?

How many failures do you think society and the world’s ethics boards will allow ?

Our population is falling, and anyway this will make vanishingly little contribution to population growth.

"No woman is owed a child. I think if you can't have one, there is a message/reason why."

Do you apply it being a "message" to other treatable conditions. ie the person is being sent a message and so shouldn't have any treatment.

Do all medical procedures have to be "necessary"? If that is the criterion you would never give treatment for infertility at all; in fact you wouldn't give treatment for headaches - after all, we can manage perfectly with headaches a lot of the time.

Is this aimed at me? If so, why?

weird comment. my dad donated his retinas after he died. he prevented two people from increasingly deteriorating sight. not good enough in your books?!

I think these are accepted facts. This is the same for the majority of people that have transplants.

We had this in Australia with first baby born post uterus transplant mid-Dec 2024. It was a mum who had donated her uterus to her adult daughter.

While I think it’s great and the example here was really positive, as posters above have said, I don’t think women will be the focus in the future. It will morph into how they achieve it for men who claim they are women and women will drop off into the background.

And if they don’t get their own way they will cite human rights and sue the person brave enough to say nope, not happening a bit like like this person:

Transgender pool champion in legal fight after male-born players banned from women’s events by English Blackball Pool Federation

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/harriet-haynes-transgender-pool-english-blackball-b2728820.html

It's all rather eewww...
It's not life saving, ethically it's on the edge.

We also have no idea of what side effects it would have if you were to pump a male body full of hormones, chemicals etc. There's a distinct possibility that it would increase susceptibility to cancer, heart problems etc.

Except that most transplants are life.saving or to avoid disability I.e blindness.

@Helleofabore How many failures do you think society and the world’s ethics boards will allow

I’m guessing as many as it takes to enable men to have babies if they want them.

@TheMovieFlopped Oh stop it! This is not a thread about trans people and their rights.

They won't have access to this procedure because it's not scientifically possible. Transplant surgery is a lot more complex than cosmetic surgery, which is essentially what the "gender affirming surgery" that trans women currently have access to is. When a trans woman has their penis removed and an artificial "vagina" created, the surgeons are essentially performing an amputation and then creating an artificial hole. There is absolutely no expectation that that "hole" will be in any way functional. Whereas the entire point of having a uterus transplant is that the uterus should continue to be functional once transplanted into the recipient's body, and that she should be able to use it to have a baby.

Even with the current demand for vaginoplasties, which far outstrips the demand for uterus transplants, it is a risky procedure with a Hugh complication rate, which often produces unsatisfactory results requiring follow up surgeries. The artificial vagina doesn't self clean, it doesn't stretch, it requires regular dilation to stop it from sealing up, it often grows hair on the inside and there are often problems with fecal matter leaking through from the bowel. The idea that it will ever be possible to transplant a uterus into a male body and for that uterus to actually function is absolutely laughable.

Another thing to bear in mind is that even if the surgery were possible, which it isn't and almost certainly never will be, a trans woman would need to receive a uterus from a dead recipient, not a living one. Because a woman with MRKH who is a good candidate to receive a transplanted uterus has a vagina of her own and quite possibly even a cervix of her own. A trans woman has none of these body parts, and would need to receive a much more extensive set of reproductive anatomy. Women who have hysterectomies do not have their vaginas removed, for obvious reasons. So a living donation would simply not be possible.

Maybe not but one day it might be. They throw their toys out their pram when it’s not all about them.

I don't agree with this at all and dread to think where it will lead. But I'm very happy for this lady.

Shuddering with horror at the thought of mentally ill males having this done. One of the most revolting thoughts imaginable. I'm so worried for some of the unnatural situations that children are being born into.

Global population is still growing. Birth rate might have fallen, but we are still having babies faster than people are dying. We can populate quite well ourselves without needing every increasing intervention.

As I said, lovely as a personal story, terrible for global advances.

"Just because you can, doesn't mean you should" sums up my views

There will likely never be the technology to achieve a successful pregnancy in a transplanted womb in a male. It is too complicated and would involve massive amounts of artificial hormones. It is seriously unlikely to ever be physically possible even besides all the ethical issues

Not IN a male, but in an external system. Think ECMO style with hormones etc. I think this is a first step to that ultimately. Won’t be tomorrow though but I think that’s science’s ultimate end game here.

It is highly improbable that this would ever be achieved for men. So a bit pointless worrying about it really.