The use of uterine transplants avoids many of the legal issues and ambiguity associated with surrogacy. This article addresses the legal questions that arise out of surrogacy agreements, the legal benefits to uterine transplants, and the advances in reproductive medicine including the clinical trial currently at Penn Hospital.

What Is a Uterine Transplant?

A uterine transplant is a procedure in which a donor uterus is transplanted into a recipient with the hope that the recipient will be able to gestate and deliver a child. Uterine transplants allow women who suffer from absolute uterine factor infertility (UFI) the opportunity to experience pregnancy. Women suffering from UFI were either born without a uterus or lost function of their uterus. Approximately 50,000 women in the United States cannot get pregnant due to UFI.