Post by Topcontender on Jul 2, 2003 9:00:49 GMT -5
Scientists claim that the first human baby could be born from a transplanted womb within three years.
Animal experiments have dismissed many of the concerns that womb transplants could not produce healthy babies.
The Swedish expert behind the research says that one of the best candidates to be an organ donor would be the patient's own mother - raising the prospect of carrying your children in the same womb that carried you.
He says that it may even be technically possible one day to transplant a womb into a man, and use hormone injections to allow a pregnancy to succeed.
However, it would be the first organ transplant which is not needed to cure a life-threatening illness, and there is likely to be a debate over whether such major surgery - and powerful immune-suppressing drugs - can be justified.
Professor Mats Brannstrom, presenting his work at the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology annual meeting in Madrid on Tuesday, said that he had been inundated with pleas for help from women after it was revealed last year that he had transplanted wombs into mice - and produced live baby mice.
Womb surgery
There are many thousands of women of childbearing age who have perfectly good ovaries, but no womb - some who were born without one, and some whose wombs were removed at a young age, either as a result of cancer, or as a result of another kind of medical emergency.
Until recently, there has been no prospect of them bearing their own children, leaving them only the option of surrogacy - which is illegal in many countries.
Studies of other female transplant patients taking immunosuppressant drugs during pregnancy has not shown any adverse effects.
The first human womb transplant has already been attempted by surgeons in Saudi Arabia.
Their success was short-lived - the organ had to removed less than 100 days later when a blood supply failure caused the transplanted tissue to start dying. There was no attempt to start a pregnancy with this patient.
Professor Brannstrom plans to use a different surgical technique to avoid this problem.
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. No way in hell i am gonna carry a kid
Animal experiments have dismissed many of the concerns that womb transplants could not produce healthy babies.
The Swedish expert behind the research says that one of the best candidates to be an organ donor would be the patient's own mother - raising the prospect of carrying your children in the same womb that carried you.
He says that it may even be technically possible one day to transplant a womb into a man, and use hormone injections to allow a pregnancy to succeed.
However, it would be the first organ transplant which is not needed to cure a life-threatening illness, and there is likely to be a debate over whether such major surgery - and powerful immune-suppressing drugs - can be justified.
Professor Mats Brannstrom, presenting his work at the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology annual meeting in Madrid on Tuesday, said that he had been inundated with pleas for help from women after it was revealed last year that he had transplanted wombs into mice - and produced live baby mice.
Womb surgery
There are many thousands of women of childbearing age who have perfectly good ovaries, but no womb - some who were born without one, and some whose wombs were removed at a young age, either as a result of cancer, or as a result of another kind of medical emergency.
Until recently, there has been no prospect of them bearing their own children, leaving them only the option of surrogacy - which is illegal in many countries.
Studies of other female transplant patients taking immunosuppressant drugs during pregnancy has not shown any adverse effects.
The first human womb transplant has already been attempted by surgeons in Saudi Arabia.
Their success was short-lived - the organ had to removed less than 100 days later when a blood supply failure caused the transplanted tissue to start dying. There was no attempt to start a pregnancy with this patient.
Professor Brannstrom plans to use a different surgical technique to avoid this problem.
----------------------------------------------------
. No way in hell i am gonna carry a kid