Womb transplant: Did you know your mom could give you that?

Mothers and daughters share many things. But this Daily Telegraph story about a mother and daughter about to undertake a radical new fertility surgery together takes the relationship into uncharted—some might even say miraculous—territory.

A UK mother is planning on giving her daughter a once-in-a-lifetime gift: her womb. Eva Ottosson, 56, has opted to have her uterus removed and transplanted into her 25-year-old daughter Sara. The transplant would give the young woman, who suffers from a rare condition called Mayer Rokitansky Kuster Hauser (MRKH) syndrome, the chance to carry her own child.

MRKH is a genetic anomaly that afflicts about 1 in 4,500 women. Those who suffer from the condition are born with either a missing or partial vagina and minus a uterus, that all-important organ that houses and protects the developing fetus. Oddly enough, the condition doesn’t affect the ovaries, however, which means a woman could have her eggs fertilized and implanted in her another woman’s womb or undergo a uterus transplant.

Ottosson told the Telegraph that the choice to donate her womb seemed like a practical solution to her daughter’s problem. Said Ottosson: “She needs the womb and if I’m the best donor for her … well, go on. She needs it more than me. I’ve had two daughters so it’s served me well.”

As the Telegraph article points out, it’s not the first time the procedure has been attempted. The world’s first uterus transplant took place back in 2000 when doctors put the womb of a 46-year-old woman into the body of a 26-year-old woman. Unfortunately, after almost 100 days the uterus had to be removed after complications due to the complex nature of the surgery developed.

The cutting edge procedure isn’t without some controversy. After the first ever surgery in 2000, the NY Times reported that some doctors questioned the ethics of subjecting a patient to the risk of an organ transplant when the procedure isn’t of life or death necessity.

Both women are waiting to hear if they’ll be the first candidates to go under the knife next year. If the surgery is a success Sara and her baby will have something in common: both will have spent time in the senior Ottosson’s womb. It may not be a question of life or death, but that definitely qualifies the surgery for amazing status.