the success of the countrys first two uterine transplants in pune last month has prompted many more women to queue up for it at last count156 women from india and abroad had joined the wait listthe surgeons who performed the transplants are in a fix as half of them are unmarried since the basic purpose of a womb transplant is re production there is now a debate on whether such women should be put through a series of serious surgeries for a nonvital organ transplanton the other hand these unmarried women between 18 to 30 years who are either without uteruses or have dysfunctional ones have heartbreaking stories to tell of the absence of menses marred marriage prospects and an inferiority complex the growing list of unmarried women who are queuing up for uterus transplant has surgeons planning to raise the issue with the government to get permissionthe issue is much bigger than we thought and must be addressed with compassion these women many from highly educated families now have great hope of having their own children their parents are willing to pay anything to get the operation done said oncosurgeon shailesh puntambekar who performed the two transplants with 11other surgeonsa 28yearold woman from mumbai said her mother was willing to donate her uterus i am in a steady relationship but my prospective husband and his family want the transplant to precede the marriage she saida married woman from chandigarh was served a divorce notice by her husband when he realised she could not have kids due to a dysfunctional uterus however he is ready to accept me if i go in for the transplant my family is more than willing to get it done she saidthe surgeons hands are tied by the montreal criteria a set of ethical guidelines formulated internationally that discourages uterine transplants unless absolutely necessary india is yet to make its own normsdr soumya swaminathan head of indian council of medical research icmr said seeking permission for the young women could set off a dangerous trend in a country where health consciousness and literacy are low women are already under too much pressure to reproduce and this will add to that the surgery has a success rate of 10 globally and should be offered only to selected cases there should be serious attempts at convincing the family to opt for other safer options including adoption she addedits not lifesaving and its expensive so what happens to the majority of indian women who are poor asked dr astrid lobo gajiwala head of tata memorial hospitals tissue bank in the absence of proper regulations it may go the surrogacy way where several women were exploited she pointed outgajiwala also felt the risk to the donor has not been adequately recognized to me the riskbenefit in such a transplant is skewed also from a feminist point i find this argument disturbing that a woman is not a woman unless she has her own biological child with such