Documentary Research Article on Uterus Transplantations Using Deceased Donor Organs: A review to 2021
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Abstract
Reproductive technology reached a new high in 2017 with the birth of a baby girl using the uterus from a deceased donor. There were no unusual complications recorded with the procedure or with the health of the mother. Three years earlier, in Swedish trials, two boys were born from uteri taken from live donors, relatives of the mothers. Science had managed to cure absolute uterine factor fertility AUFI, in women so afflicted. While some fine tuning in procedure will dominate future development, especially the clinical aspects, we must not forget the ethical considerations. This documentary review therefore focuses on how deceased donor uterus transplantations are viewed within the available data in three contexts: the anthropology of the human, in medicine, and in sociology with emphasis on certain cultural constructs of modern liberal society. Underlying the diagnosis is the fact that the uterus is a non-vital organ in human physiology, and dead donor uterus transplantations or DD UTX raise new challenges in ethics. The biases observed in the data, the limitations; a procedure less than ten years old, and the conclusions we arrived at, are presented in this review.
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