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World-First: Woman Becomes Pregnant After Ovarian Tissue Graft

Posted by samzenpus on from the cabbage-patch dept.

brindafella writes "When an Australian woman, Vali, was diagnosed with cancer, and treated, she was not looking at a good outcome. Yet, TWO cancer treatments later, she is pregnant with twin girls. Her ovaries were sectioned and frozen before the cancer treatment. She has had her own flesh implanted outside her pelvis. Eggs were gathered, IVF techniques used later with her male partner, and her uterus is now carrying two viable girls due to be born in about 3 months. Melbourne IVF's Associate Professor Kate Stern has explained the process today."

11 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. Good and bad. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It is good that science saved her and empowered her to have children. There is no denying that this is a win.

    It *also* means that whatever genetic predispositions to cancer she may have had were likely passed on to her children, who are now more likely than others to get cancer and need the same treatment.

    This does not make the science bad, nor its use bad. But it clearly is bad. Future generations will be looking at dating pools full of people with genetic predispositions for all kinds of expensive and life-threatening diseases. We are actively creating this future, which is unfortunate. However, any means of getting in front of this problem and ensuring the genetic health of future generations is either ruthlessly incompassionate or frighteningly mad-scientisty (or both).

     

    1. Re:Good and bad. by lnunes · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There is a Star Trek: TNG episode where LaForge gets stranded in a planet with a romulan, which says to him that should he have been born a romulan he would never be allowed to develop/grow up, due to having his genetic defect in his eyes.

      The logic behind was very similar to yours. I found it cruel when I watched it, and I still do, but it's hard to deny the benefits to society.

    2. Re:Good and bad. by mpeskett · · Score: 2

      Look at the right period in history, and myopia would have been a serious impairment. Guess we'd have been better of not inventing glasses, and not allowing the short-sighted to breed.

    3. Re:Good and bad. by Rob+the+Bold · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Well here is the thing. It would of happened in nature anyway, if he was born as any other animal he would of died young. If humans were still living as we were when we first came onto the planet, he would of.

      "Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we are put in this world to rise above."

      --
      I am not a crackpot.
    4. Re:Good and bad. by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I can't believe I'm defending ST:TNG, but the whole point of that episode is that LaForge, despite his birth defect, was still one of the most, if not the most competent non-android on The Enterprise. Sure, his visor allowed him to see, so technology bridged the gap (and then some, frankly I couldn't figure out why everyone in the Federation wasn't using them), but LaForge was a highly intelligent man. His blindness didn't make him less intelligent.

      My great-grandmother was totally blind from about the age of nine. She lived to be in her early 90s, lead a pretty amazing life, not to mention being one of my sires (which I'm very grateful for). She didn't super-duper technobabble glasses, but she had ropes strung around her yard to guide her along along with other ingenious aids that allowed her to function, and lived on her own for six or seven years after her second husband died until about six months before she died. She cooked, she cleaned and raised two children. She was also an incredible musician who could play just about any damned instrument; violin, concertina, guitar, piano, recorder. I feel very lucky that I got to know her.

      The one thing I learned from all of this is that you cannot tell what a person, even with some fairly substantial disability will be capable of. I don't want to live in the kind of society that would have viewed that woman as a burden.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    5. Re:Good and bad. by MightyMartian · · Score: 2

      The thing is that we have evidence that even Neandertals looked after their sick. Sure there were some societies like the Spartans who used eugenics of some kind to strengthen the master race, but even in the Classical world they were viewed with a measure of fear and loathing (and ultimately it didn't help them when the Romans came rolling into town).

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    6. Re:Good and bad. by Truekaiser · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Acknowledging a fact, and advocating for it are two different things. I hope one day you realize the difference.

      I Acknowledge that from 100,000 years ago to roughly 10,000 years ago being born blind or with any such handicap was a death sentence. If not by nature then by fellow tribesmen who can't afford to take on an extra burden of someone who can't do anything.
      I Acknowledge that from about 10,000 years ago to only 200 or so years ago, being born with a handicap entitled you to a short life at worst. At best depending on your class, creed, and culture you might live a semi productive life.

      We have the tools now to overcome our limitations, but those won't last long. How long is up to debate.
      So I Acknowledge the fact that without those tools we will be back to viewing those things as burdens.
      Yet with them a handicapped person, baring prevention by class and creed, can live a full productive life.

      Do I advocate for those things to happen? No, I do admit that these facts exist.
      I admit that while wrong to anthromorphize nature by saying nature doesn't care, but it is the best way to describe it.

  2. Re:swim from cuba to US by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Funny

    but grandma Nyad proves that you're never too old to be an attention whore

    The Internet is the beast with a million assholes.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  3. I was flabbergasted at first by jonr · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I thought she had become pregnant by accident, that hers or the donators eggs had somehow be fertilized....

  4. Re:Frankenovaries by iggymanz · · Score: 2

    pure nonsense, you have bought into the agenda of the mankind-haters. The truth is prosperity lowers the birth rate, the birth rate for those of european descent in the USA is below the rate needed to sustain a growing population. The 2nd derivative of the population growth curve shows the world population will peak in the 2070s around 8.5 billion people then decline. There is thus no problem with babies being born, and even the resource scarcity arguments assume that metals and whatnot disappear from the planet after first use. The crust of the earth is 20 miles thick, no shortage of anything. Of course, if you or like minded people really are so bent out of shape over so many human lives, feel free to off yourself. Take a load of 00 buck in the face for the team.

  5. I was flabbergasted by brindafella · · Score: 2

    There was a time when Slashdot was for people to bring interesting and informative things, or to ask good questions and get good advice. (That is why I bothered to submit this report of a world-first procedure.)

    And, then people like you came along.

    READ what the story is about; watch and listen to the video.

    --
    Looking at space, radio, science and computing from a 'down-under' amateur enthusiast perspective.