Hi everyone, This is not the first time that this form of research has been undertaken. March 7, 2002 the New York times printed an article on "Medical First: A Transplant of a uterus", there was another more recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald- on August 14th of this year there was an article on how a "US doctor defends human cloning experiment". Though it is not dealing with a transplanted uterus, this form of medical intervention involves taking the DNA from an 'infertile' mother and adding it to a donor's egg. The donor's DNA would be removed from the egg, which would be implanted into a surrogate mother!!! What a world! Beyond the fact that this form of research screams about the faulty body of the woman (sending this message loud and clear to all who read it)- think about the emotional turmoil of all involved- of course there is more here to be dissected and discussed- such as things as the imperative of a biological child and the woman as patient- labelling infertility as an illness as well. Whilst I have much empathy for a woman or couple who are finding themselves in the position of having fertility problems- I do have a serious problem with using women as guineau pigs in medical research, as has been the case with IVFand surrogacy (we do not know the long term effects of the amount of hormones given to these women as of yet)- I feel that our society places too much emphasis on having a biological child- women or couples are no longer able to deal with the problem of infertility in an 'nonmedical' way. By labelling infertility an illness and having the technology to treat it- we may reach a point where women or couples who do not take up this option are seen as irresponsible.
Well that is my two cents Take care everyone Alphia Alphia Garrety (Ba. Hons.) PhD. Candidate School of Sociology and Justice Studies Bankstown Campus, University of Western Sydney UWS Locked Bag 1797 South Penrith Distribution Centre NSW 1797 Australia Phone: 02 97726628 Fax: 02 97726584 -- This mailing list is sponsored by ACE Graphics. Visit <http://www.acegraphics.com.au> to subscribe or unsubscribe.
