Infertile Daughter To Receive Uterus From Mother

kkleiner writes "Led by Dr. Mats Brännström, a team of surgeons at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden are giving Sara Ottosson, now 25 years old, hope that she may one day fulfill her dream of giving birth to a baby. The uterus will come from a very special donor: Eva Ottosson, Sara's mother. Sara's operation will mark only the second time transplantation of a uterus has been attempted in humans, and the first time between a mother and daughter."

Responsible?

[steevven1]

I feel bad for the girl who has problems with infertility, but is it really responsible to put your child at higher risk by having it grow in an essentially experimental situation, when you could just deal with your unfortunate problem, make the best of a bad situation, and possibly adopt?

Re:Responsible?

[Anonymous Coward]

agree.

It is pathetic how many resources are wasted on fertility medicine. There are plenty of children in need of adoption (not the foreign adopt a stolen kid kind); many children languish in foster care, only to graduate to the penal system when they turn 18. These kids could have radically different life paths if, folks instead invested the money, that would have gone to a fertility clinic, in an adopted child's education and upbringing..

Re:Responsible?

[Seumas]

No, you have to remember. Squirting out one of your own makes you a wise sage and quite nearly a saint for looking after your own responsibility for the next eighteen years. It's everyone else who doesn't squirt one out and demand to replicate their genetic structure like wild dogs that are selfish and self-centered. Media outlets act like the people in this family are a cross between victims and heroes, when the real admirable thing to do would be to put all that money and energy spent trying to reproduce those faulty genes into helping some poor child out there who would be delighted to have a family of their own.

Re:Responsible?

[cheekyjohnson]

I'd say she should adopt a child. I think that this world is already overpopulated with humans as it is.

Re:And they do that with socialized medicine!

[Macrat]

How about choosing adoption?

Re:Responsible?

[Kjella]

Those that fight to have their own child, stay in the gene pool. Those that don't and raise someone else's, exit the gene pool. You don't get much stronger evolutionary pressure than that. Also from what I've heard it's not that hard to find people to adopt babies or very young children. Those you find in foster care are often older, taken out of their home because they've suffered neglect, abuse or molestation and alcoholics or junkies as parents. As a result many of them have developed huge problems of their own, which many people are reluctant to adopt. And if you end up with someone that's already in the rebellious phase who likes to point out you're not his real parents, well the amount of bonding you get will be limited. Even if people got other the part about having their own child, don't expect the institutions to be empty.

Re:Responsible?

[EdgeCreeper]

Maybe because it is because most people like to reproduce rather than show altruism as great as adopting a child. You know, human nature.

Re:And they do that with socialized medicine!

[interkin3tic]

How about choosing adoption?

Story was posted at 11:25 PM, yours at 12:17 AM. So it took Slashdot at most 45 minutes to think of adoption. This woman presumably has been thinking about it longer. She's consulted with doctors, who are generally not idiots. Her mother is obviously on board, so it's safe to assume that her family is involved in this decision. So there are multiple people who are talking to her about this.

You can't possibly believe adoption had neither occurred to her, nor had it been suggested to her at some point.

She -must-- have some reason why she didn't want to adopt. Maybe you and I wouldn't agree with the reasons, but she has them.

A child at any price?

[bradley13]

This is great for writing medical papers, but in truth it is simply irresponsible medicine. If she can't have a child, well, life's a bitch. If this works, she is going to be on massive medication, like any transplant patient. To conceive and carry a child under those circumstances is simply nuts. Even organizations that totally support transplant patients point out the massive risks [transplantliving.org] involved.

If this woman is this desperate for a child, she needs psychological counseling more than she needs a new uterus.

If this fails, she plans to adopt

[gr8dude]

The ending bit of the video attached to the article - "if this fails, she plans to adopt". Can you blame her for trying before giving up?

You say "can't replicate like a feral cat", but that is not what is really happening. Those parents who abandon their children usually breed like feral cats (hence there is a great supply of such children), whereas in her case it is not mentioned anywhere that she wants a "houseful" of babies.

You also say that people should better spend their money in different ways. But if they earned it, don't they have the right to choose what to do with it? [as long as it is not something illegal - like buying guns and killing other people]

I may have acted differently, had I been in their shoes, but I can't say I have reasons to say they are stupid or irresponsible.

Re:I have a MUCH easier solution.

[Anonymus]

She sees it as a (highly dangerous) chance to have a kid naturally, the rest of the world (outside of Slashdot, apparently) sees it as a way to further science. It's pretty much win-win all around. I don't see why everyone here is railing against it so hard, since in most cases science for science's sake is a laudable goal around here. I imagine it is partly due to the fact Slashdot is incredibly skewed towards not only the male demographic, but the single-male-who-hates-children demographic. If this sort of thing became commonplace, yeah, it's kind of a waste, but save your disdain for later and for now respect the incredible risk this woman is taking.