Medical miracle for conception-challenged fundie moms? Or the "New Coke" of biological science?
And, hey, how's that overpopulation thing working out for global climate change?
First U.S. Uterus Transplant Planned: Some Experts Say Risk Isn't Justified
(Washington Post--01.15.07)
...[D]octors are planning the first womb transplant in the United States. A team based in Manhattan has begun screening women left barren by cancer, injuries or other problems who want a chance to bear their own children.
"The desire to have a child is a tremendous driving force for many women," said Giuseppe Del Priore of the New York Downtown Hospital, who is leading the team. "We think we could help many women fulfill this very basic desire."
Hunh! Global climate change is caused by overpopulation. Overpopulation is caused by fertile wombs (and low intelligence, i.e. failure to know about or respect the issue of birth control). Doesn't anyone else see the "cause and effect" here?
"It is the convergence of two fields that are already embedded in large ethical disputes," said Lori B. Andrews, a bioethicist at the Chicago-Kent College of Law. "This represents the worst of both worlds."
Several experts said the plan highlights the unique status that childbearing holds in the United States and elsewhere, and the lengths to which some women will go to experience it, even with the availability of such options as adoption and surrogacy.
"I'm not convinced that science and medicine and society as a whole should be putting so much emphasis on having this particular nine-month experience," said Adrienne Asch, who studies family life at Yeshiva University. "Why is that the sine qua non of being a parent? The real work of parenting is in the time after a child is born and is in someone's home."
[,,,]
After performing the complex surgery, doctors would wait probably about three months to make sure the organ is functioning and has been stabilized with anti-rejection drugs...An embryo created through in vitro fertilization would then be placed in the womb. If the pregnancy goes well, the baby would be delivered by Caesarean section to minimize risks from labor and to allow doctors to simultaneously remove the uterus, so the woman could discontinue the anti-rejection drugs.
"We are calling it a temporary transplant," Del Priore said. "This minimizes the time patients have to be on the medications and makes it a much more reasonable risk to take to have a baby."
[...]
"This is not like a kidney transplant -- it's not medically necessary to the woman's life," Andrews said. "Without it, the woman can live a healthy life. She still has options. She can adopt. She can even still have her own biologic child with a surrogate."
Del Priore acknowledged the possible risks, but he and others said women should have the choice.
Women should have the choice to have a baby--BUT
NOT HAVE THE CHOICE TO
NOT HAVE A BABY? WTF?
Some days, LIKE TODAY, I think all "wombs" (
such a quaint word) should be removed and all eggs and sperm be given over to a rational, non-profit foundation...
Quiverfull Families, no birth control/abortion/masturbation/condom-use/gay-sex--we are seriously doomed!
My head hurts...
