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

TRAs might well broach it, but it’s just not possible, for multiple medical and scientific reasons.

Men are not designed to have babies.

I don’t see it any differently to say a woman who needed a kidney or liver transplant etc to be able to safely have a pregnancy?

There are plenty of women who do not ever want children who I imagine would be happy to donate.

what makes the womb different to a heart? Or lung? There’s no difference

Of course I don't feel as though any woman should feel guilt, but we do if there's anything that goes wrong or there's anything that causes distress to the baby.

Agreed but there are plenty of drs eager to " help" kids with damaging surgery and treatment

Sometimes there's no obvious logic, and it's hard to articulate, but it just feels "wrong".

I worry what kind of pressure families are put under to make difficult decisions quickly, when the recipient needs the organ as "fresh" as possible.

As I’ve shown you, it’s just not possible. You’re upset by an impossibility.

I was asking if there was data about it and even assumed that there was, no need for your several wows.
People are allowed to question medical advances both from an ethical and a medical perspective.

I actually love the idea that part of me could live on and be useful or save someone's life in the event of my demise. It gives me comfort.

Because dunno harm has to be top of the list.

Experience tells us that doctors sometimes do bad things.

This sits uneasily with me.

Mostly because of the idea that nen could start clamouring for their own wombs.
And anything serious that goes wrong endangers the foetus and the woman.

Having a baby is one of the riskiest things women can do.

I don't want young healthy women being able to donate wombs or have them stolen.

Families shouldn’t really play a role though. Sounds harsh, but you have the option to opt in or out. That’s your bodily autonomy. If I found out my parents were planning to say no after I have made it clear I want my organs to be donated, I would be so unspeakably angry.

this isn’t some US drama where someone might not be dead and they’re taking organs anyway.

Womb Transplant UK have stated they will not be carrying out any research into transplanting a womb into men. So, again, you’re upset by an impossibility.

It is really interesting ethically, and it’s right to discuss it. We shouldn’t be shamed for questioning it, because that’s how we know whether it’s appropriate to attempt. It’s a new idea. It’s right the ethics and our own attitudes and other people’s are interrogated.

I think there is so much we have learned very recently about the female body, it would be foolish to assume there’s nothing else. That breastmilk is tailored to the needs of the child- by sex, health, age- is a new discovery. That we and our DC carry elements of each other long after their birth is a relatively new discovery. It is possible wombs do something we haven’t yet noticed. Some people are squeamish enough about wearing someone else’s shoes, let alone their womb!

@supersonicginandtonic can I ask, as you were reflecting on your SiLs fertility problems not your own, do you think that ‘hope’ of medical makes it easier or harder? In the past, couples who didn’t have children had to just wait and see. Over time it became evident that it wasn’t going to happen. They had to resign themselves to it. Were they worse off, emotionally, than couples now who go through gruelling fertility treatments and still end up without a baby?

I’m happy for the new family.

How is it “grim medical chaos”? The baby is very unlikely to know any different seeing as the womb would have been transplanted way before the baby was conceived.

That's just not true. Corneal grafts, bone/skin allografts, hand transplants for example.

Me too. It’s a lovely idea, isn’t it? My body has served me well up to this point and I hope it does for a long time more. The idea of it helping others too is beautiful.

I think we're talking at cross purposes. I don't think males are females or vice versa. And I don't think this procedure should be offered to males. I'm saying that it's possible, at some point, that it could be by a God Complex surgeon. However impractical or unachievable some them aren't put off

That's pretty much the movie The Pod Generation.

But that’s a hypothetical that is, at a minimum, 25 years away.

The work this charity is doing is nothing short of amazing. They’re offering so many women a lifeline when they may feel incredibly hopeless. I’ve not seen a real argument against it other than “it feels wrong” and “it could be used for trans women one day”

It's lovely that you're so concerned, but really, I'm not upset.

They've not used the eggs from the donor and the baby will have received all it's nutrition and immunity from it's mother through the umbilicus. The uterus is simply a vessel for the baby to grow in. There is no need for the baby to go looking for another family when they're older ffs

As I said, it's a sex and gender discussion so I thought I'd throw it out there for people to discuss.
I personally think it's too risky a surgery to undergo to then grow a baby inside. Which sets it apart from other organ transplants. And I've never seen the stigma attached to adoption. I tried to myself, but for the actions of a dreadful social worker and her dept I would have.

I made it clear that I feel it is different, on an emotional level. That's just how I feel, not a statement of fact or a claim that it is different.

And even leaving the ovaries intact, hysterectomy raises the risk of prolapse, premature menopause, and early dementia (off the top of my head). It is a major operation to go through, with more serious, long-lasting potential effects for the donor than a kidney transplant.

Plus, women are uniquely at risk of being trafficked, coerced, financially pressured, or even just socially pressured - 'you've finished your family, how can you withhold the joy of children from your sister??' - into undertaking this risky operation. Just look at surrogacy and egg donation, and how on a global scale it's resulted in many women being held prisoner, used like breeding animals.

The potential misuses are ethically concerning to me.

I don't really have a problem with this. I can see the potential concerns around if we were to stray into the territory of having live donors but we're a long way off that by the looks of it.

I think it's great. It must be truly wonderful for the parents. I hope they'll get a chance to have a second child before the donated uterus needs to be removed.

I don't understand the negative reactions from some in this thread. If I've read the reports correctly, there was no egg donation, so this little boy will be brought up by both his bio parents. I'm adopted, so I didn't get that. It matters.