Should uterus transplants receive public funding? : An ethics and policy analysis

Williams, Nicola (2024) Should uterus transplants receive public funding? : An ethics and policy analysis. In: Living Donor Organ Transplantation :. Elsevier, pp. 27-32. ISBN 9780443235719

Abstract

The transition of uterus transplantation (UTx) from bench to bedside brings about an urgent need for clinicians, ethicists, and policymakers to consider questions of distributive justice in allocating uteri for transplant and funding the procedure in countries with publicly funded healthcare. This chapter explores the latter question, looking to the major barriers and objections that any proposal to fund UTx might face in countries with socialized medical systems given the procedure’s status as an ephemeral transplant performed solely for quality-of-life enhancement and reproductive purposes; high financial costs; and alternative means of attaining parenthood such as adoption and surrogacy. Given this, this chapter first explores questions about whether absolute uterine factor infertility should be considered a condition serious enough to warrant state-funded medical treatment and then focuses on the cost-effectiveness of UTx as that treatment.