Big Ozzie
April 21st, 2007, 07:28 PM
Doctor's Orifice
Removing organs through mouths, rectums, and vaginas.
By William Saletan
Updated Friday, April 20, 2007, at 9:23 AM ET
New column 4/18. (For the latest columns on the Virginia Tech massacre, moral evolution, and selling your organs, click here (http://www.slate.com/id/2164252/fr/flyout#z).)
A woman is freezing her eggs so her daughter can use them to have a baby. The daughter is 7 years old and genetically infertile. Objection: The daughter would be "giving birth to her biological half-sister (http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSN1927194520070420)." Mom's rationales (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070419.BABIES19/TPStory): "Parents are there to help [their] children, and if she would have needed anything else, an organ, a kidney, I would give it to her without hesitation." 2) "I was living all the joy and excitement of my own pregnancy, and I couldn't bear that she would miss that." 3) There's no law against it. 4) If my daughter doesn't want to use the eggs, she can reject them. Human Nature's predictions: 1) Next, moms will hit up their daughters for eggs. 2) By the time this girl is old enough to use her mom's eggs, our culture will no longer find it shocking. (For an update on three women who have given birth to their grandchildren, click here (http://www.slate.com/id/2151600/).)
"Natural orifice" surgeons are removing organs through patients' mouths and vaginas. A training video shows an appendix coming out of a patient's mouth; doctors went through a vagina to get a gallbladder; surgeons expect to try similar maneuvers through the rectum (http://www.noscar.org/). Rationales: 1) You avoid post-surgical pain from having your abdominal muscles cut. 2) You recover faster. 3) Your vagina and colon are less sensitive than your abs. 4) It's a logical extension of laparoscopic surgery, which reduced incision size. Objections (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/20/health/20surgery.html): 1) It's "repulsive." 2) It's emotionally "invasive." 3) Patients won't accept it. 4) Your plumbing could leak into your abdomen. 5) Laparoscopic surgery is safe enough. (For Human Nature's take on intestinal surgery to disrupt fat digestion, click here (http://www.slate.com/id/2154262/). For the HIV risks of alternative orifices, click here (http://www.slate.com/id/2126643/).)
Removing organs through mouths, rectums, and vaginas.
By William Saletan
Updated Friday, April 20, 2007, at 9:23 AM ET
New column 4/18. (For the latest columns on the Virginia Tech massacre, moral evolution, and selling your organs, click here (http://www.slate.com/id/2164252/fr/flyout#z).)
A woman is freezing her eggs so her daughter can use them to have a baby. The daughter is 7 years old and genetically infertile. Objection: The daughter would be "giving birth to her biological half-sister (http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSN1927194520070420)." Mom's rationales (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070419.BABIES19/TPStory): "Parents are there to help [their] children, and if she would have needed anything else, an organ, a kidney, I would give it to her without hesitation." 2) "I was living all the joy and excitement of my own pregnancy, and I couldn't bear that she would miss that." 3) There's no law against it. 4) If my daughter doesn't want to use the eggs, she can reject them. Human Nature's predictions: 1) Next, moms will hit up their daughters for eggs. 2) By the time this girl is old enough to use her mom's eggs, our culture will no longer find it shocking. (For an update on three women who have given birth to their grandchildren, click here (http://www.slate.com/id/2151600/).)
"Natural orifice" surgeons are removing organs through patients' mouths and vaginas. A training video shows an appendix coming out of a patient's mouth; doctors went through a vagina to get a gallbladder; surgeons expect to try similar maneuvers through the rectum (http://www.noscar.org/). Rationales: 1) You avoid post-surgical pain from having your abdominal muscles cut. 2) You recover faster. 3) Your vagina and colon are less sensitive than your abs. 4) It's a logical extension of laparoscopic surgery, which reduced incision size. Objections (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/20/health/20surgery.html): 1) It's "repulsive." 2) It's emotionally "invasive." 3) Patients won't accept it. 4) Your plumbing could leak into your abdomen. 5) Laparoscopic surgery is safe enough. (For Human Nature's take on intestinal surgery to disrupt fat digestion, click here (http://www.slate.com/id/2154262/). For the HIV risks of alternative orifices, click here (http://www.slate.com/id/2126643/).)