Medical advances allow children to be born from grandmothers' uteruses

Medical advancements in organ transplantation now allow women who were born without a uterus or lost theirs in accidents to give birth using the uterus of a relative.

José Pérez Bernal, a Spanish transplant specialist, explains how surgical progress has expanded the age limits for recipients. Doctors now include patients up to 75 years old for heart, kidney, or liver transplants if their physical condition allows it.

In the United States, robotic surgery enabled a 75-year-old man to receive a lung through a 7-centimeter incision. In Spain, the average age of organ donors has risen to 60 years, and technology in Córdoba now helps preserve lungs at extremely low temperatures to maintain organ quality. Medical teams are successfully transplanting organs that were previously considered untransplantable, such as the larynx and the intestine.

At the Virgen del Rocío hospital in Spain, doctors performed an intestinal transplant on a woman who had relied on a vein for nutrition for 14 years. Researchers have also performed bladder transplants in the United States and thymus transplants in London. Furthermore, approximately 100 live-donor uterus transplants have occurred globally, including cases in Sweden where women in their 50s or 60s donated to relatives. Future research focuses on xenotransplantation, using genetically modified pigs to provide hearts, livers, and kidneys.

Scientists in the United States and China are working to prevent immediate organ rejection through genetic engineering. While artificial organs like a new heart in France or a bio-artificial cornea in Israel show promise, experts note that artificial intelligence should only complement human judgment in deciding who joins transplant lists. In Spain, researchers at Hospital La Paz are testing simultaneous bone marrow and organ transplants to prevent immune system rejection without requiring heavy medication.