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

One of my kids said in relation to being an IVF baby “Oh Thank God, now I don’t have to worry about you and Dad having sex”!!!

After seeing all the heart break my sister in law went through to have children, I’m all for this and would have donated my womb if I could have.

Waiting lists are so high because there’s not enough doctors to operate. This won’t affect the waiting lists at all. It’s basically medical research.

This was my thought too.
I had thought that women who had recoeved any form of transplant, were discouraged from pregnancy, due to 1. The added stress it places on their body and 2. The potential risks of the anti-rejection drugs on the fetus.

This feels way riskier than a regular organ transplant.

I assume women who are on immune suppressants for other reasons, like auto immune diseases, have babies, there must be some data on this, but levels and kind of drugs might be quite different.

Well, if the donor had consented its one thing.

Of course the UK now assumes consent.

Organ transplants are normally given to prevent the recipient from dying. It isn't the same in this case at all
I have every sympathy for women who can't conceive, for a good while it looked like I couldn't. But this is way too risky and who is actually thinking about the baby? As always it's a secondary consideration, as with surrogacy.
Transplants are fraught with complications and often are rejected by the recipients body. Even if it was accepted by your body would you really run the risk of something happening with a baby inside. How would you forgive yourself if something went wrong and the baby died? Or would it be a case of blaming it in the Dr who performed the transplant?
Some Drs have a God complex and get ahead of themselves with the next ground breaking idea instead of pushing for better results in things that are already achievable.
There are children already in the world who are desperate for a loving home.

Rather than collecting from ASDA, I think it’s more likely to be a Brave New World scenario.. Babies made in labs, early years in labs, owned and brought up by the state. No biological parenting required.

A womb is just an organ.

"Frankenstein-esque" is a horrible way to describe it and if the child does grow to feel any way about it, it's because of the judgement of people like you.

No one ever thinks about the baby / children in surrogacy / IVF / womb transplant or in fact just your common or garden pregnancy. It’s always and only about the adults.

What a wonderful gift, praise to those who agreed to an unusual donation.

What's it to you though? The NHS aren't funding it. Do you feel the same way about other medical procedures that people self fund?

Do you think the same about babies who require organ transplants? Who’d want to be alive with Frankenstein-esque origins?

Well they wouldn’t exist without it so…?

wouldn’t ask a child who’s father only lived to be able to have them because they had a heart transplant from a dead donor how they felt about a Frankenstein father….

Thats probably easier to say for some than others.
Some really struggle with infertility. And the grief for the baby that will never be.

If this is a solution for women. Then why not? Much better than surrogacy and biologically the child is the product of the actual parents. So not got the issues surrounding donor eggs / sperm / embryos

I have to say, I do find it a little disturbing that it doesn't seem to require the dead woman's explicit consent regarding uterus transplantation? It's entirely up to her family? So a woman who is an organ donor but never even considered the idea of donating her uterus, and wouldn't have wanted to, could still end up with her uterus harvested against her will as her family may assume she would have been alright with it?

Or is there a specific thing you have to tick to say that yes, you're willing to donate your uterus?

The only dead part of the process that bothers me is the risk for the baby. Any transplant of internal organs is incredibly risky and then of course the drugs the recipient has to take, sometimes for life. You don't only have the woman's life to consider here, but the baby's too.
To liken it to a cornea transplant , as someone has in this thread, is completely ridiculous!!

Yes, and there could be cultural scenarios where 'freeing' women from reproduction would result in getting rid of women and girls all together...

This person is honestly not worth your time. There is so much ignorance around infertility. As someone who struggled with it for 5 years, I've heard every comment going. I just sigh and move on now, and am extremely grateful to modern medical science that I have my son.

Exactly

Do you really think it matters to a child if the sperm met egg in a dish rather than a fallopian tube?
Its not exactly like you remember where the sperm & egg that made you met.

Having a small part of your eye replaced is no way the same as having an organ inside your body and then trying to grow another human inside it.

With a womb transplant as long as it lasts 9mths if the body starts to reject it the obvious answer is remove it rather than keep taking heavy drugs