My paper argues that the oppressive kinship and gender norms underlying recruitment of uterus donors ought to be challenged to make way for a socially disruptive future of uterus transplantation (UTx).
Long abstract:
Uterus transplantation (UTx) is a surgery in which a uterus from a live or deceased donor is transferred to a recipient with absolute uterine factor infertility (AUFI) to enable the latter to experience pregnancy. Most surgeries thus far have utilised live donors due to greater availability and ease of planning. As it stands, however, live donor recruitment practices for UTx reinforce oppressive kinship and gender normativities by idealizing mother-to-daughter donations, or otherwise calling upon women whose uterus has already been ‘used’ for childbearing. Transitioning transgender men or women who do not wish to ever gestate, on the other hand, are entirely excluded as potential uterus donors, even though they may otherwise be eligible and interested in doing so. I thereby argue that the kinship and gender norms underlying donor recruitment practices ought to be challenged, and expanded, if we are to transform the innovation of UTx into a more socially just - and socially disruptive - practice.