News that you can use First successful UK womb implantationChurchill Hospital at Oxford was hailed as the “Best”A new dawn has arrived” in reproductive medicine
The recipient of the sperm is a woman who is 34 and was born without a mother. Her older sister has two children.
The operation is funded by Womb Transplant UKThe charity raises funds to support womb research and hopes that womb donation will become an alternative treatment for infertility. “Within a few years”The use of existing tools, such as IVF, drugs and surrogacy, is encouraged.
There are some ethical issues to be considered, even though the procedure has the potential to change a woman’s life.
What are the steps involved in the procedure?
A womb-transplantation is a complicated procedure where one team of surgeons removes and transplants the womb into the recipient. Both stages are long and complex operations that take many hours. Patients remain in hospital days after the operation.
Both donor and recipient receive extensive counseling to ensure their psychological suitability. After the transplant, the recipient takes drugs to suppress her immune response to avoid the rejection of the new organ.
The recipient will undergo a further operation to remove the womb once she is done “using” it. This allows the immunosuppressant drug to be discontinued.
Then, there is the First successful womb transplantsAround 50 babies were born in 2012 as a result of 100 procedures performed worldwide. Teams in SwedenYou can also read about the USThe technique has been particularly successful.
Who can benefit?
Women who are unable to carry a child due to medical conditions can benefit from womb transplantation. Around One in five women is born without a wombThe wombs of many women who are childbearing aged have been removed due to CancerIf you have fibroids, prolapses or extremely heavy cycles, this is the place to start.
Although women without wombs may still be able to be genetic mothers – if embryos created using their eggs are gestated and birthed by surrogates – womb transplants give them the chance to carry and give birth to their own babies.
How safe are they?
There is a lot of evidence that the procedure is safe for both donor and recipient. – from over 50 years of transplanting other organs – on the safety of immunosuppressant drugs for recipients’ unborn children.
The womb transplantation is a serious procedure that requires a long recovery period. However, many other types surgery are also designed to improve the quality of life rather than save it. Most other non-lifesaving surgeries don’t require a living recipient to undergo a highly invasive surgery with a lengthy recovery period.
There is also some evidence that women who undergo hysterectomy – even where it doesn’t trigger menopause – Depression can result from this..
Counseling can certainly help inform potential donors of these risks, and ensure that their consent is informed. It cannot eliminate risk and consent is not enough to make an operation ethical.
A second type of safety issue could be the supply of wombs to transplant. There have been some alarming reports. organ black marketsTrafficking in organs of vulnerable people is a serious problem. Included in the UK. Similar concerns could arise if wombs are transplanted in the future.
As womb donation becomes more common, some women may feel under pressure to donate their ovaries to family members who are eligible (most of the transplants have been done to date). Family members). Some may even apply this pressure to themselves.
How much is it?
The UK’s first womb transplant was not publicly funded: a charity covered some of the £25,000 cost and surgeons donated their time.
As the procedure becomes more mainstream there will be calls for it to be provided on the NHS (once the technique has been sufficiently developed), including for transgender patients. This will be undoubtedly controversial.
Are we idealizing biology?
It takes a great deal of effort, knowledge, and money to give a woman an artificial womb. Do we risk idealizing the biological process?
Even people who are unable to carry a child can still experience parenthood. In going to great lengths to enable gestational parenting, we must be careful not to create a hierarchy whereby the latter is viewed as the gold-standard, and “mere” social or genetic parenting is devalued.
It is important to avoid unrealistic expectations of pregnancy and childbirth, as this can lead to a far less fulfilling experience than what transplant patients hope for.
Some women experience a traumatic or tragic pregnancy, followed by postpartum. The following are some examples of how to improve your own language skills:. It’s unrealistic to think that this will automatically improve the quality of your life.
Mary NealReader in Law University of Strathclyde
This article has been republished by The ConversationCreative Commons licensed. The Licensed Terms are available here. Original Article.
