First British Baby Born Using Transplanted Womb From Dead Donor (bbc.com)
(Tuesday February 24, 2026 @11:01PM (msmash)
from the gift-of-life dept.)
- Reference: 0180855428
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/02/24/200231/first-british-baby-born-using-transplanted-womb-from-dead-donor
- Source link: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg53xp5857o
A 10-week-old boy named Hugo has become the first baby [1]born in the UK from a womb transplanted from a deceased donor , after his mother Grace Bell -- who was born without a viable womb due to a condition called MRKH syndrome, which affects one in every 5,000 women -- underwent a 10-hour transplant operation at The Churchill Hospital in Oxford in June 2024.
Hugo was born just before Christmas 2025, weighing nearly 7lbs, at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in west London, following IVF treatment and embryo transfer at The Lister Fertility Clinic. Bell's transplant is one of three completed so far as part of a UK clinical research trial that plans to carry out 10 such procedures from deceased donors, and Hugo is the first baby born from any of them.
Earlier in 2025, a separate effort produced baby Amy, the first UK birth from a living womb donation -- her mother had received her older sister's womb in January 2023. Globally, more than 100 womb transplants have been performed, resulting in over 70 healthy births.
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg53xp5857o
Hugo was born just before Christmas 2025, weighing nearly 7lbs, at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in west London, following IVF treatment and embryo transfer at The Lister Fertility Clinic. Bell's transplant is one of three completed so far as part of a UK clinical research trial that plans to carry out 10 such procedures from deceased donors, and Hugo is the first baby born from any of them.
Earlier in 2025, a separate effort produced baby Amy, the first UK birth from a living womb donation -- her mother had received her older sister's womb in January 2023. Globally, more than 100 womb transplants have been performed, resulting in over 70 healthy births.
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg53xp5857o
10 week old? (Score:2)
by robi5 ( 1261542 )
How? Was he 10 weeks old already when he was born? Or did he reach 7lbs from conception and was born prematurely after 10 weeks of pregnancy? Or was he not going to be the first such baby, and then 10 weeks after he was born, he became the first somehow?
Re: (Score:2)
by sjames ( 1099 )
Or he weighed 7 lbs at birth back in December and he is now 10 weeks old.
The lede is the last sentence (Score:2)
by bistromath007 ( 1253428 )
I'm getting really sick of the anglosphere's obsession with being decades behind on medicine because of weird fascist bullshit
Why not adopt? (Score:2, Troll)
If you really feel you need a child, why not adopt a child instead of this procedure whereby you made yet another human?
Re: (Score:1)
Adopt? What part of the world do you live in where that is still possible in 2026? Even adopting from 3rd world nations is difficult now.
Non-family adoptions in Australia are down to 26 in 2024. I know one person who managed to adopt years ago, because he had the same medical condition as the baby. You don't apply for that - they find you. ... Googling I see "private adoption" is possible in the Land of the Free if you have enough money. Everything is for sale, eh?
You can try to foster a child, but you
Re: (Score:1)
Why adopt?
Besides, this isn't even new, and a lot of these have already been done. First living donor was in Sweden in 2014, first deceased donor was in Ohio in 2019, and many more (of each kind) have been done and resulted in a successful live birth since.
Re: (Score:2)
> If you really feel you need a child, why not adopt a child instead of this procedure whereby you made yet another human?
A lot of people want children they are genetically related to. They want to pass on their genes. It's the most basic of all animal instincts really - to reproduce, and pass on their genetic heritage to future generations. Logically, there are many good arguments against it. Overpopulation. Children in need of adoption or foster care. I am not here to debate about it, just to state the obvious: people are animals, and animals seek sexual reproduction, just like every other species on this planet.
Re: (Score:2)
why not stop judging people about what they do with their body