Thursday, October 22, 2009

Listen to your fellow doctors

Womb transplants 'within two years' - Science, News - The Independent

This is just silly:
British scientists believe they will be able to carry out the first-ever successful womb transplant within two years. They have worked out how to transplant a womb with a good blood supply which could mean it lasts long enough to carry a pregnancy to term.
Um, do we know how the immunosuppressants affect babies? (Maybe we do: I suppose it is possible some young women on them have fallen pregnant.)

But even so, Smith, who has been practising this on rabbits, notes:
...there was little interest in the studies in the medical profession but the demand from patients was huge. He said: "There's a lot of dismissal in the profession in terms of this being a step too far in fertility management. But for a woman who is desperate for a baby, this is incredibly important."

Mr Smith, who presented his findings at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine conference in Atlanta, Georgia, said the womb would only stay in place until the woman had had the children she wanted. "The plan is that once a woman has had her children, the uterus comes out and she can come off immunosuppressants."

Mr (I assume it should be "Dr") Smith should spend more time telling patients to be more realistic and that medical science can't appropriately remedy all of life's misfortunes, rather than working on disposable uteri.

2 comments:

TimT said...

Thanks to the hard work of these doctors, thousands more women the world over will be able to enjoy the experience of labour. Um, yay?

(Though surely allowing these women to adopt would be much simpler, less expensive, and painful?)

Geoff said...

He may be a Mister. Surgeons traditionally were not "doctors" but barber-surgeons and some surgeons still bristle when called doctor. (...or it could be a typo)

I suppose they could just do a hysterectomy instead of a caesarian with the babe inside.

I agree with you (aghast) that this is going too far.