Official Comment Count: 1,032,597

Reality is always more complicated than you think.

Profile

jake-head-shot.jpgJake Young is a MD/PhD student at Mount Sinai School of Medicine focusing in Neuroscience. He is due to graduate in 2032. He received a BS and a MS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University -- where he spent most of his time drinking heavily and building vegetable catapults instead of learning information that would now be eminently useful. When he is not failing terrifically to perform his sworn duties, he enjoys watching bad movies, ethnic food, and running.

Pure Pedantry is a blog about science -- social sciences and otherwise -- as well as academic and scientific culture. No one can live on science alone, so I also like to dwell on pop culture, periodically explore the humanities, and indulge in other types of geeky goodness.

Jake is joined periodically by two wonderful guest bloggers: Kara Contreary and Kate Seip. See the About Page.

DISCLAIMERS: 1) Jake Young is not a licensed physician (yet). He is merely a medical student. The information published on this site is not intended for use in medical decision making. Please seek advice from a licensed, medical professional before making any health decisions. 2) The opinions expressed are my own or those of my co-bloggers. They do not represent the views of SEED magazine or the educational establishments we currently attend.

Search this blog

Archives

Blogroll


raptor.jpg

« Why do we get fevers? | Main | Poem of the Week: Lisel Mueller's Curriculum Vitae »

Stephen Colbert on the Dude Uterus

Category: EthicsHaha, a funnyMedicineTV
Posted on: November 15, 2006 11:09 AM, by Jake Young

On The Colbert Report last night, Stephen Colbert talked about an article about uterine transplants for The Word. Scientists now claim that there is nothing technically to prevent us from performing a womb transplant, even to the point that you could put a uterus in a man:

Scientists claim that the first human baby could be born from a transplanted womb within three years.

Animal experiments have dismissed many of the concerns that womb transplants could not produce healthy babies.

The Swedish expert behind the research says that one of the best candidates to be an organ donor would be the patient's own mother - raising the prospect of carrying your children in the same womb that carried you.

He says that it may even be technically possible one day to transplant a womb into a man, and use hormone injections to allow a pregnancy to succeed.

However, it would be the first organ transplant which is not needed to cure a life-threatening illness, and there is likely to be a debate over whether such major surgery - and powerful immune-suppressing drugs - can be justified.

Professor Mats Brannstrom, presenting his work at the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology annual meeting in Madrid on Tuesday, said that he had been inundated with pleas for help from women after it was revealed last year that he had transplanted wombs into mice - and produced live baby mice. (Emphasis mine.)

Yikes. That is a bit much. I saw that movie, and didn't like it.

84m.jpg

I am impressed with their technical acumen -- crazy lab people, what will you think of next? -- and I am certain that there are many women who can be helped by this procedure. However, I just know that this is going to be an ethical street fight about where to draw the line. Science, why do you always make my life difficult?

Anyway, here is a link to a video of Stephen Colbert talking about the article. It is totally hilarious.

Comments

The amount of science & maths references and interviews in The Colbert Report are astoundingly high for a news show, even a fake one. Go Stephen.

Posted by: Koray | November 15, 2006 4:21 PM

Post a Comment

(Email is required for authentication purposes only. Comments are moderated for spam, your comment may not appear immediately. Thanks for waiting.)





Having problems commenting? (UPDATED)

Blogs in the Network

Advertisement

Top Five: Most German

Search All Blogs