Baby born from dead donor womb transplant in UK first

[IwantToRetire]

Commisseration and support for the family of the woman who died, and happy for the new mother.

But feel sort of uneasy about this.

https://news.sky.com/story/simply-a-miracle-baby-boy-born-from-dead-donor-womb-transplant-in-uk-first-13511093

I offered to consider donating my womb, as a living donor, to someone once. I didn't say I'd do it, I said I'd consider doing it and was willing to find out more. They had initially asked about me being a surrogate, which I declined.

I struggle with my iron, so losing my uterus seemed like a potential help to me. I'm not sure this is something that is a good use of medical resources but, if they're doing them and my close relative was asking, I was willing to discuss it.

Nurtured in a lab???

Who's going to do the nurturing? (Remembers Rumanian orphanages, Ireland's historical wash house/mother and baby homes, Australian experiments on rearing "half caste" Aboriginal children)
shudders

For all the pps saying it’s no different to other transplants it actually is; other transplants are to save lives.
This is not a life saving operation it’s fucking ridiculous.

Good grief

Cornea transplants don't save lives.
Womb transplants are not ridiculous.

Can you explain why you think it’s fucking ridiculous @JoeSikoraTommysStory ?

Blindness is a disability, childlessness isn't

The involuntarily childless would probably disagree with you.

Exactly.

I wonder if a post-menopausal womb would be worth transplanting?

I also wonder if the strong visceral reaction from some posters is because the article said "dead donor", could it be the word "dead" is upsetting?

Cornea transplants replace damaged or diseased corneas with a healthy ones from a donor to restore vision, reduce pain, and treat eye infections. What's so different with a womb transplant?

Child birth is a pretty normal event that the human female body is equipped for. Modern medicine also helps.

Perhaps some women are incapacitated by pregnancy, but world population numbers would suggest that most are not.

You might regard women who are pregnant as "beached whales" but most people would simply consider them as women who are going to have a baby.

The entire process of bringing a baby to term takes time. It gets the parents ready as well as the baby - after all, they will have to work together for the next...15 years at the very least?

Picking one up at Asda, while perhaps attractive to a certain type, will not work out well for the babies/children involved.

Agree. I remember each of my children in the womb and the magical process of growing them. I mean, sure severe morning sickness of 22 weeks wasn't any fun, one birth was very dangerous for me but I wouldn't want to forgo that process either. There's something very special about the whole process and, once past the sickness, I loved my baby bump, being pregnant and the anticipation.

What a horrible thing to say. Do you feel the same about all organ transplants? If the mother had a heart or lung transplant, would it be equally grotesque to think of those transplanted organs supporting the foetus?

Please explain why you think it’s ridiculous. Many, if not most surgeries performed are not saving lives. I could understand an argument against it being available on the NHS, but if a patient was willing to pay privately for this then why not?

I see it as that the baby has grown in a it's own sleeping bag (placenta) in a borrowed tent (the donor's womb) but still in Mum's house (the body of the woman who grew the baby, gave birth & raised the baby aka as Mother)

As long as it stays this way & it's only for women who grow the baby, give birth & raise the child - Mum

I would have no problem donating my womb (after I've gone) in this case.
If my own DDs needed my womb then they can have after I've been through menopause & no longer need it.

This is a scientific breakthrough for women.
Feminism centres women.
I'm glad this thread isn't centering men.

Yes, I agree it's a scientific breakthrough for women. I thought the article was very interesting and encouraging. The woman who received the donor womb was so happy and grateful. It's nothing like a Frankenstein's Monster kind of creation at all. The womb is a specific organ which Is designed to support and nurture a growing foetus. It is a marvellous organ, like all our organs, and is only found in women. Women get pregnant, grow the baby and give birth. A baby conceived and grown in a donor womb, carried inside its mother, would have the same kind of symbiotic experience as any foetus. I think it is amazing that this womb transplant is possible.

I suppose if it's a dead donor who explicitly gave her permission for her womb to be used, then that's fine. Why not? Personally, I wouldn't want to ever donate my womb, and I'm uncertain about my other organs - what if they go to someone who's a terrible person? There's a fairly high chance of that, especially if they go to a man.

With live womb donors, I think there's far too much risk, and too many potential negatives (such as prolapse, early menopause, dementia risk, etc) just so that a woman can have a biological child. It's a frivolous, luxury surgery that doesn't improve the recipient's health or physical quality of life at all.

I suppose if people want to do it, it's not much different to cosmetic surgeries...and yet there's something very body-horror-ish about it - that a particular organ which only women have, can be 'farmed' from other women.

ok that's a fairly nonsensical answer

Is there any data how immune suppressants affect a developing fetus?

Why grotesque? People drop this amount of money and more to buy a car. It’s also what several rounds of ivf will cost on the private market. Often the number of rounds to have a successful pregnancy.

Not at all. If you needed any other organ transplant would you take it? Obviously you would so there’s no comparison.

How, from the child's perspective, is this fundamentally different to say ivf? People used to consider that grim and awful.

When I read the statements of the new mother, and the parents of the woman who died I am unable to categorize this birth as Frankenstein.

I find the living donors concept much more disturbing, and open to abuse, frankly.

Lastly, it is abundantly clear to me that even if women “freed” themselves from pregnancy and childbirth (Or alternatively, become socially groomed to deny themselves the beautiful experiences of pregnancy and childbirth), they will still be left with the hard graft of child rearing and mental load and emotional labour. It is hopelessly naive to think that rent-a-womb will lead to men doing more of the labour they currently get for free from women.