A womb transplant was tried on a human in 2000, but the organ had to be removed after three months because of problems with its blood supply. But now surgeon Richard Smith (that's not him above) has developed a "vascular patch technique" that connects major blood vessels like the aorta. His team performed transplants in five rabbits, two of which lived for 10 months after the procedure. Examinations after the rabbits died showed the transplants were successful.

Smith said the next step is to impregnate rabbits to see how the transplanted womb handles pregnancy. Then he will try the procedure on bigger animals — if he can get the money. He's been denied grants from several medical organizations, perhaps because of questions about the usefulness of his procedure. A transplant could allow a woman to carry a child if she was born without a womb, or if the organ was damaged by cancer or another disease. But she would probably need IVF, as the transplant would raise the risk of ectopic pregnancy if she conceived naturally. And she would need to deliver by C-section because the transplanted womb would likely not hold up in labor. And of course, the transplant itself would carry risks — the womb would only be left in long enough for the woman to have a child, but during that period she would need to take immunosuppressant drugs. The whole procedure would be expensive and potentially dangerous, and Smith says, "There's a lot of dismissal in the profession in terms of this being a step too far in terms of fertility management."

It's worthwhile to ask what "a step too far" really is. Some people object to IVF because of its expense or because of the risk of multiple births. Others see ethical problems with surrogacy, finding it distasteful to pay a woman to be pregnant. But both techniques have gained fairly wide acceptance, and it's possible that womb transplants would too. Smith says, "for a woman who's desperate for a baby, this is incredibly important." His choice of the word "desperate" is a little questionable, but the popularity of IVF does show that many women — and men — who have trouble conceiving still want to have biological children. Womb transplants would extend this opportunity to a group of women who don't currently have it. While some opponents of fertility treatment advocate adoption for such women, that's far from a cheap or easy process either. If Smith's research succeeds, it will give women without wombs the same options as women with them — which seems, on balance, like a good thing.

Womb Transplants 'A Step Closer' [BBC]
Womb Transplants 'On The Way In Two Years' [Daily Mail]
British Scientists Step Closer To Womb Transplants [Guardian]

In 1985, scientists at the CDC performed a battery of tests, including of intelligence and fertility, on 425 Vietnam vets between the ages of 31 and 44 as part of a study on the effects of serving in Vietnam. More recently, scientists at King's College London, the University of Delaware and the University of New Mexico looked at how those men's sperm stacked up compared to their intelligence and found that the men who scored higher on the intelligence tests had more and better sperm even if they drank, smoked or were overweight (3 factors that normally affect sperm count and motility).

The researchers think that it might be possible that the genes that affect innate intelligence could be tied to genes that affect sperm count and motility — and study co-author Geoffrey Miller goes even further.

This could help explain, then, why intelligence can be so sexy: It could simply be an indicator that a person has a lot of good genes and traits...

Also, it could explain why male stupidity is sometimes such an effective method of birth control.

Smarter Men Have More Sperm [LiveScience]

Image via Flickr.

• Dutch prosecutors announced today that they have dropped their murder investigation into a late-term abortion that a woman had performed in Spain because the woman suffers from "psychological problems." • The Australian Parliament passed a landmark law today that allows single and lesbian women access to fertility treatment and gives gay partners and parents of surrogate children legal parenting rights. • A former park ranger at the Belair National Park in South Australia claims that rescued koalas that are turned over to park rangers are shot. • An English study of personal ads finds that the myth of the "dirty old man" is true, with most men seeking younger female partners. • A group of English actresses claim they were tricked into auditioning for a porn film when they thought they were auditioning for a Little Britain-style adult comedy. • Why do so many men buy sex? • A UK PSA features a dog drug mule with his chest cut open talking to drug users.• Meanwhile, a new study suggests that dogs have evolved to chase more efficiently over long distances and cats have evolved to creep up on prey, rather than chase. • A painting by Giambattista Tiepolo hidden in an attic of a French chateau for decades because it was deemed "risque" fetched $4.1 million at a Christie's auction in London. • China has told artists performing on its annual TV gala on Chinese New Year's Eve to not lip-synch their songs. • A judge in Arkansas issued a gag order on Wednesday in the murder case against a man accused of beating Anne Pressly, a local news anchorwoman, to death. •