First baby born through donated womb in the UK is cause for ethical concerns, expert says

CNA Staff, Apr 11, 2025 / 14:11 pm (CNA).

A baby born in the United Kingdom is being called “a little miracle” for being the first child in the country to be born to a mother using a donated womb.

The baby’s mother, Grace Davidson, was born without a functioning uterus and underwent a womb transplant in 2023 in which she received her sister’s uterus. At the time, it was the U.K.’s only successful womb transplant. Two years later, Davidson gave birth to her and her husband’s first child using in vitro fertilization (IVF).

While the Catholic Church encourages certain fertility treatments — specifically the use of NaPro technology — the use of IVF is contrary to Church teaching. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (No. 2377) states that IVF is “morally unacceptable” because it separates the marriage act from procreation and establishes “the domination of technology” over human life.

The Church also opposes methods like womb donation since IVF is the only means with which a woman can become pregnant.

In an interview with EWTN News President Montse Alvarado on “EWTN News Nightly,” Joseph Meaney, past president and senior fellow at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, discussed the ethical concerns surrounding thepractice of womb donation and its relationship to IVF.

“Organ transplantation requires a number of things to be ethical,” he told Alvarado during the April 9 interview. “One is that the procedure is proportionate in terms of the risks and the benefits. And the womb transplants actually are quite dangerous.”

“The other problem, and I would say the major ethical problem with uterine transplantation, is that they are forced to use IVF to achieve pregnancy. They’re not able to achieve a natural pregnancy. They actually have to produce embryos in a lab in order to achieve these pregnancies.”

Another potential concern of these surgeries is that they may lead to transgender surgeries — where a uterus could be transplanted into a biological male. While this has yet to be done, Meaney said that “there are people discussing it.”

“It’s at the theoretical stage, but I think there are some people who would like to do that, which of course would be tremendously unethical as well,” he added.

Meaney pointed out that “since 2014 there have been 100 cases of children who’ve been born through transplanted wombs.”

The practice, he explained, started in Sweden but is now being done in the United States.

“This is definitely picking up speed and it’s being done more in different parts of the world,” he said.

As the Trump administration works to make IVF more accessible, Meaney said he believes we could see an uptick in the procedure.

“This is something that is kind of part of that whole IVF industry. [It] is not only using surrogate women but also using surrogate wombs in the sense of doing these organ transplants. So, that I think is part of the agenda out there in terms of treating infertility in ways that are highly unethical,” Meaney said.

Watch the full “EWTN News Nightly” interview with Meaney below.

Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/263327/first-baby-born-through-donated-womb-in-the-uk-is-cause-for-ethical-concerns-expert-says