Wait…but the scrotum was transplanted, right? Did the recipient have a scrotum that was damaged, with intact testicles inside? Or does the recipient now just have an empty scrotum, transplanted from someone else?
Testicles were not transplanted because it would raise too many ethical questions.
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They swapped testicles
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No they didn't.
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Yes they did
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What ethical questions?
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"Would the kids be those of the deceased donor or the new owner?"
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Yeah right
I'm guessing the donor's biologically
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How is this any different than a sperm donor? Sounds like people making a fuss over nothing.
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You could have tied the vas deferense, avoided the ethical issue and the patient could get the testosterone he needs.
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You’re telling some of the worlds best doctors how to do this jobs?
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@HopkinsMedNews Hi, genuine question - could you explain what those ethical issues might be? -
I was wondering same thing. Would a transplant be able to produce viable sperm? And if that is the ethical concern, wouldn’t a vasectomy remove that concern?
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Likely, yes. Vasectomy isn’t 100% reliable and can actually be reversed. Seems Hopkins is likely trying to avoid this conflict of whether he could ethically or legally decide to do such a thing.
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Plz help me out, trying to get it. Obviously not a Dr just super interested. If sperm is constantly produced or absorbed when not expelled, wouldn’t the recipient’s DNA be at least a part of that sperm since it’s not like a woman being born w/all the eggs she’ll ever have?
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Good point, women are born with all the eggs they’ll ever have. Men produce sperm, but do so from stem cells which are formed before they are born. They just continuously divide. These cells are actually separated from the rest of the body as the immune system would attack them.
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Germline cells are created and separated from us very early and isolated from the DNA of the rest of our bodies. This can be seen in pretty extreme cases:https://www.google.com/amp/amp.timeinc.net/time/4091210/chimera-twins …
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Wow! That is super interesting! And thank you for clearing up my confusion. I definitely understand more.
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By all means let's avoid the ethical questions. That how progress is d... wait, what?
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Excellent topic! What about vasectomy? The future is bright! Congrats to the team.
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