AlphaMED Resources · https://alphamedicine.uk/Resources/cases/womb-transplant
Womb transplants in the UK
A woman born without a working womb received her sister's womb in 2023, and two babies have been born in the UK after the operation. The charity that funds the programme pays the NHS for each operation, and the operation is not life saving.
- A sister gives her womb in a living donor operation in Oxford
- First UK birth after a womb transplant
- Second UK birth, the first after a deceased donor
- The deceased donor birth is announced
Summary
- A womb transplant gives a woman with no working womb the chance to carry a pregnancy. The UK programme is funded by Womb Transplant UK, a registered charity, which pays about £30,000 for each operation.
- Unlike most transplants, this one does not save a life, yet a healthy donor has major surgery for it. Surgeon Isabel Quiroga says transplants are usually carried out to save a life, and that this one can "enhance a life, and now to create a life".
- A bioethics commentary says a living donor has surgery for another person's benefit.
- In early 2023 a sister gave her womb at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford. The recipient then had IVF at the Lister Fertility Clinic in London, and the first UK birth followed in February 2025 at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital.
- In December 2025 a second baby was born at the same hospital to a woman with a deceased donor's womb, the first birth from the deceased donor programme.
- The living donor programme has approval from the Human Tissue Authority, and it plans five living donor transplants. A research study of ten deceased donor transplants has approval from the Health Research Authority. Richard Smith has said it is still at an early stage.
Dig deeper
- A 2026 scoping review recorded 61 risk events in 34 living donors. Nerve, infection and urinary problems were the most common, and the authors call the evidence preliminary.
- A bioethics commentary of 23 March 2026 argues that a living donor's consent may be less free because of family pressure.
- Becky Clarke, of NHS Blood and Transplant, says that donation is about choice.
- Quiroga says the programme offers "another option alongside adoption or surrogacy". In UK law the woman who carries a child is treated as its mother, and surrogacy arrangements are not enforceable.
Ethical issues
| Principle | How it applies here |
|---|---|
| Autonomy | In England and Wales an adult recipient is presumed to have capacity to decide. The donor's choice has to be free, which is hard to guarantee inside a family. The Human Tissue Authority checks that there is no duress, coercion or reward. Deceased donation needs a separate consent from the family, asked only after organ donation has been agreed. |
| Beneficence | The benefit to the recipient is a pregnancy, which Quiroga says can "enhance a life". Transplants are usually done to save a life, so the benefit must be weighed against major surgery for someone else. |
| Non maleficence | A healthy donor bears the harm of major surgery. The 2026 scoping review could not date a third of donor risks (34%). The largest dated group, 18% of all donor risks, arose within a week of the operation. For recipients of living donor organs, immune rejection, when the body attacks the new organ, was the most common risk, at 18% of their recorded risks. |
| Justice | The charity pays the NHS about £30,000 an operation, so access depends on what Womb Transplant UK raises. The charity says patients must first have embryos stored. A reviewer of a 2024 talk says the requirement may exclude women from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. |
Interview questions
- What do you know about the first UK womb transplant births?
- Why might a surgeon say a womb transplant is not the same as a transplant that saves a life?
- A healthy woman tells you she wants to give her womb to her sister. What do you need to find out before she decides?
- Should the NHS fund an operation that a charity has been paying for?
- A patient asks whether she should try a womb transplant or surrogacy. What do you tell her, and what do you leave for her to decide?
- Is it justified to ask a healthy donor to have major surgery for a pregnancy rather than survival, and what is the case on each side?
- Why might a deceased donor operation need a separate request to the family?
Sources
- ouh.nhs.ukouh.nhs.uk/…/2360
- ouh.nhs.ukouh.nhs.uk/…/2217
- progress.org.ukprogress.org.uk/…/hello-hugo-first-uk-birth-following-a-uterus-transplant-from
- hta.gov.ukhta.gov.uk/…/first-uk-birth-following-womb-transplant
- scielo.brscielo.br/…/wg3BvWGVMMBvGfLZSw5Phqy
- legislation.gov.uklegislation.gov.uk/…/33
- legislation.gov.uklegislation.gov.uk/…/1A
- legislation.gov.uklegislation.gov.uk/…/1
- wombtransplantuk.orgwombtransplantuk.org/…/press-release
- progress.org.ukprogress.org.uk/…/event-review-the-first-human-womb-transplant
Photo: Wellcome Collection, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, colour altered.
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