Women without wombs: New technology offers progress, warning

Last updated on: October 14, 2014 at 10:38 am by CNA Daily News

Women without wombs: New technology offers progress, warning 2014-10-14T10:38:00+00:00 CNA Daily News

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Washington D.C., Oct 14, 2014 / 04:38 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The first successful birth to a woman who had undergone a womb transplant highlights both opportunities resulting from new technology and the need for caution, said a Catholic bioethics expert.

“The womb can be recognized as an organ that serves a particular function,” explained Fr. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D., director of education for the National Catholic Bioethics Center.

He told CNA on Oct. 10 that the transplantation of a healthy womb to a woman who lacks a womb because of birth defects or disease can be licit and “would be analogous to a situation where a kidney fails to function” and a donor provides a healthy organ to someone in need.

Women can lose function of wombs after cancer, medical treatments, or due to certain birth defects.

Recently, a Swedish woman gave birth to a baby boy after receiving a transplanted womb donated by a post-menopausal friend in her 60s. This is the first successful womb transplant to be coupled with a pregnancy, after two attempts by other medical teams that failed to lead to successful pregnancies.

“Our success is based on more than 10 years of intensive animal research and surgical training by our team and opens up the possibility of treating many young females worldwide that suffer from uterine infertility,” said professor Mats Brannstrom, leader of the transplant team, to the BBC.

Fr. Pacholczyk explained that while the number of couples who could benefit from this therapy “is relatively small,” the transplant itself opens the possibility for a new morally acceptable therapy.

Transplanting the uterus alone could be morally acceptable, he said, as long as the transplant of ovaries and sex cells were not also done, respecting the uniqneness of each person's genetic information.

The priest also noted that in the recent case, the woman – whose ovaries were still functioning – and her husband had used in-vitro fertilization to create 11 embryos, implanting one which resulted in a successful pregnancy and birth. The use of in-vitro fertilization violates Catholic teaching, because it too separates the creation of life from the marital act.

For such a womb transplant to be completely licit, Fr. Pacholczyk said, IVF could not be used, and children would need to be conceived naturally “through the marital act.”

Fr. Pacholczyk also pointed to ethical concerns surrounding potential donors for the therapy.

In this case, he noted, “the uterus was obtained from a postmenopausal woman” whose “reproductive life was behind her.”

“By donating the uterus she is not compromising her reproductive function nor is she compromising any significant hormonal function,” he explained, saying that uteri from cadavers and from post-menopausal women could be used for transplant.

What would not be morally acceptable, he noted, is for a premenopausal woman to donate a uterus “with a contraceptive intention,” or in a way that would prevent her from being able to bear life while she is still biologically capable of doing so.

Previous Post

October 14, 2014

What kinds of family issues are important to a Nicaraguan bishop?

Next Post

October 14, 2014 Is your faith wearing cosmetics? Take them off, Pope Francis says

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Americas Asia - Pacific Europe Middle East - Africa Uncategorized US Vatican

Select a Month November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was Rebekah's father?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Abraham Bethuel Terah Laban