A womb must not become a spare part for sale

Aug 22, 2023

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Narrated by James Marriott

Throughout the exultant coverage of Britain’s first womb transplant, I waited for news about the donor. We met the shiny-eyed, triumphant surgeons who’d worked a Sunday in their special double operating theatre. We learnt about the recipient, born without a uterus, now having periods and waiting to start IVF. But of her sister who had donated her womb there was just a cursory, “she’s recovering well”.

The gravity of her sacrifice was wafted aside, although this was a radical hysterectomy, removing not just the uterus and cervix but the “cuff” (upper part) of the vagina. Given the complex transplant process it took many more hours, with greater surgical risk than a conventional hysterectomy, an operation that can throw women into menopause, cause blood clots and