New York, Jan 16: Doctors in a New York hospital are planning the first womb transplant in the United States and are screening women who would have a chance to bear children.

Thousands of women cannot bear children because of a malfunctioning uterus or when their wombs are damaged from cancer and other problems, 'The Washington Post' said.

The womb could come for the dead and would be removed after first successful pregnancy, thus avoiding the need to take anti-rejection drugs throughout life.

"The desire to have a child is a tremendous driving force for many women," said Giuseppe del Priore of the New York Downtown Hospital, who is leading the team. "We think we could help many women fulfil this very basic desire."

But the post said the planned operation, which could come later this year, has stirred objections from some transplant, fertility specialists and medical ethicists who question whether the procedure has been tested sufficiently on animals and whether the benefit of being able to carry a pregnancy outweighs the risks for women and foetus.

"This raises a set of very difficult medical and ethical questions," Thomas H Murray, who heads the Hastings Centre, a bioethics think tank, told the paper.

"I think it's very questionable. This would be very hard to justify."

Several experts said the plans highlight the unique status that childbearing holds in the United States and elsewhere, and the lengths to which some women will go to experience it, even with the availability of such options as adoption and surrogacy.

http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?rep=2&aid=348143&ssid=364&sid=ENV