World’s first baby born via uterus transplanted from dead donor
- The current norm for receiving a womb transplant is that the organ would come from a live family member willing to donate it
- Ten previously known cases of uterus transplants from deceased donors – in the United States, the Czech Republic and Turkey – failed to produce a live birth
In a medical first, a mother who received a uterus transplant from a dead donor has given birth to a healthy baby.
The breakthrough operation, performed two years ago in Brazil, shows that such transplants are feasible and could help thousands of women unable to have children due to uterine problems, according to a study published Tuesday in The Lancet medical journal.
The baby girl was born in December last year in Sao Paulo.
Until recently, the only options available to women with so-called uterine infertility were adoption or the services of a surrogate mother.
The first successful childbirth following uterine transplant from a living donor took place in 2013 in Sweden, and there have been 10 others since then.
But there are far more women in need of transplants than there are potential live donors, so doctors wanted to find out if the procedure could work using the uterus of a woman who had died.