Cadaver Womb Gives Infertile Couples Hope

How desperate are you to have a baby? There are 7.3 million women in the US between 15 and 44 years of age that have the impaired ability to get pregnant, that’s roughly 11.8 % of the population. The number of married women ages 15-44 that are infertile (unable to get pregnant for at least 12 consecutive months): 2.1 million.

British doctors have moved a step closer to carrying out what they hope will be the world’s first successful human womb transplant, giving hope to thousands of women who are unable to have children for medical reasons. They expect this miracle to take place within the next two years.

Surrogacy and adoption, options I strongly support, are now considered something of the past or unquestionable for some anxiously wanting to have the full experience of childbirth and parenthood. There are millions of children who would dream to be loved and desired. However, £250,000 more in research will be donated this month for further research into the strong viability of donor wombs being transplanted into infertile women.

Richard Smith, a consultant gynaecological surgeon at Hammersmith Hospital, West London, said that his team had solved a key problem of how to maintain a regular blood supply to a womb transplanted from a donor rabbit into another, allowing it to survive long enough to carry a successful pregnancy.

There was a brief success story with a Saudi woman in 2000, but, it failed when a blood vessel supplying the organ developed a clot, and it had to be removed after 99 days. Now larger animals like pigs and goats have brought scientists closer to their dreams of conception, so to speak, by proving that reliable blood supply can be achieved and maintained.

Previous studies failed when animals died due to blood clots or excessive bleeding. But of the five, two rabbits lived for up to 10 months and examinations after death — from causes unrelated to the transplant — showed the surgery to have been a success. Although the surviving rabbits were mated, they did not become pregnant naturally. But further research will attempt to make rabbits pregnant by using embryos fertilised in the laboratory, Mr Smith said.

This brought all sorts of questions to mind when I read about this “experiment”. I probably have more questions than there are answers!

First and foremost, why would anyone want to undergo this transplant? One would have to have in vitro fertilization treatment still, a procedure still somewhat in it’s infancy and quite expensive, often not covered by medical insurance (especially nowadays!). Why not just have in vitro fertilization with your own womb then?

The transplant would be temporary, only permitting one successful pregnancy and it would have to be done within 2 years of the transplant. Why go through such ridiculous, time-consuming, and risky procedures for one pregnancy? Wouldn’t the rewards be so much greater, less costly, less time consuming, less risky in adopting-or going through surrogacy? At what point are you so anxious to conceive that you are willing to jeapordise your life and that of your unborn child? What are the odds of this child having complications, birth defects, or be still birth if born through a donor womb?

Besides the ethical and moral dilemmas that are heavily latent with this procedure are the social and emotional concerns. Not to sound crude or childish, but just imagine having sex with a woman with a dead person’s womb inside her. That dead woman’s womb is going to hold your baby for 9 months. Quite possibly, that dead woman’s eggs are going to be fertilized by your sperm. You won’t know that donor at all, not even her background. The child you watch be born from your wife’s body is not hers biologically. No matter if the child is both of yours biologically or not, your wife will inevitably have to go through excruciating medical procedures, surgeries, and the eventual removal of that donor’s womb to have that one child. Wow. Imagine the physiological and psychological issues in that marriage! Is that really something you want to expose your child to?

I have a much better idea. Let’s spend the money on research for this project towards African nations instead. We don’t need to throw money or food at them. They are a proud country who want autonomy like anyone else and don’t want to be forced into a Westernized civilization ( a concept our country likes to shove down other nation’s throats quite frequently!). Rather, rebuild their schools, roads, and businesses and prepare them for future droughts so they can survive the future ones that will in time come again. Like 1984, they don’t recover from dehabilitating droughts and famine through a bunch of clueless rock stars singing to the tune of billions of donated dollars. That didn’t work then and it won’t now.

Adopt the orphaned children of Africa while you are at it. Hell, it seems to be all the rage in high society these days. Just don’t buy a uterus only to have it removed a couple of years later. Let God be God.

I can’t possibly imagine the heartbreak of not being able to conceive (for either gender). After all, I have six children. The inate desire to conceive is compelling. I do understand loss and to lose a child is the worst pain of all. Even worse is losing three children. Considering the likelihood of losing a child through this procedure, or having a disabled child (I also have one of those!), it isn’t worth buying a uterus even if it’s on the market.

I dedicate this article to my own daughter, who would have been 15 years old tomorrow. She never even had the chance to fall in love and have children. But I know in my heart she would have been an awesome mother.