Should Government Pay for Men to Have Wombs?

Transgender people who were born male but now identify as women should have the ultimate female experience, childbirth, say doctors in the United Kingdom.  Not only that, but soon homosexual men who want to have babies may soon get their wish.  And for that matter, even straight men who want to be the one who has the baby can do it, too.

It all boils down to the same medical procedure: a uterus transplant.  Right now, women who were born without a uterus are being surgically implanted with a donor uterus.  But doctors say people who were born male may have the procedure within the next decade.

Since 2014, at least five babies have been born to womb-less women after receiving donor wombs in a series of pioneering operations at Gothenburg University in Sweden.  Swedish doctors assisted in a successful uterus transplant to a woman in the United States last year.  

Later this year, British doctors hope to give donor wombs to at least three UK women.  Belgian doctors are planning a womb transplant program involving 20 women later this year as well. 

The U.K. government operates their National Heath Service, which is taxpayer-funded and free to citizens.  UK doctors told The Mail transgender women who were born male should be given womb transplants so that they can have children.  Fertility experts say taxpayers should fund such transplants on the basis of "equality enshrined in law." 

Dr. Amel Alghrani, director of Liverpool University's Health Law & Regulation Unit , says in the Journal of Law and the Biosciences that once women started being offered womb transplants, 'questions will arise as to whether this should be publicly funded' for trans-women too. 

It could lead others to demand transplants, including straight men, "allowing for couples to jointly share the reproductive burdens and joys of pregnancy," adding, "Homosexual couples may also wish to procreate in this fashion, while single men may opt for it to avoid surrogacy."

But critics say the NHS should not waste precious resources merely to allow trans-women to pursue an "authentic female experience."

Women's campaigner Laura Perrins said, "Most taxpayers will not think this is a good use of resources. It raises profound ethical and moral issues that will have an impact on women's rights. It will impinge on the meaning of motherhood and womanhood."