Cautious optimism at the first live birth after womb transplant from deceased donor
The news broke on the 4 December 2018 that clinicians had achieved a successful pregnancy and live birth following a uterus transplant from a deceased donor...
Dr Natasha Hammond-Browning
BioNews Articles by Dr Natasha Hammond-Browning
Image by Bill Sanderson via the Wellcome Collection, © Wellcome Trust Ltd 1990. Depicts Laocoön and his family (from Greek and Roman mythology) entwined in coils of DNA.
Altruistic anonymous uterus donation — altruism at the highest level?
Sixteen uterus donations have occurred worldwide, and so far only a research team in Sweden has carried out transplants that successfully produced live births. The Swedish trial involved donations from living persons...
Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
Womb transplants — are they worth the risk?
The first US uterus transplant was carried out in February, but before we continue down this route we need to ask whether the risks outweigh the benefits of these procedures...
Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
Womb transplants — is surrogacy safer?
The recent news that the Health Research Authority has given approval to a UK charity to conduct a clinical trial for womb transplants is seen as welcome news for women without wombs. But when compared to the extensive surgeries required for a womb transplant, is surrogacy not the safer option?...
Image by Bill Sanderson via the Wellcome Collection, © Wellcome Trust Ltd 1990. Depicts Laocoön and his family (from Greek and Roman mythology) entwined in coils of DNA.
Regulating hybrid embryo research in the UK
The issue of creating hybrid embryos for stem cell research was first raised in November 2006 when '...the HFEA received applications from two different research teams for a licence to derive stem cells from human embryos, created from animal eggs instead of human eggs' (1). A public consultation on this...