Uterus Transplants in Mexico: Legal Ambiguity and the Case for Reform

A law amendment to Mexico’s General Health Law that would allow live uterus donation from pre-menopausal women was recently proposed. This amendment, if passed, would be the first ever piece of legislation to explicitly address uterus donation at any level of government. Two objections have been raised to the amendment, by the authorities in charge of organ transplantation. In this article, I critically examine one of the objections. The objection maintains that there is no need to reform the General Health Law, because its correct interpretation entails that live uterus donation from pre-menopausal women is already permitted. In this article, I show that the objection fails, and that uterus donation from pre-menopausal women is currently forbidden. My approach is threefold. First, I show that the objector’s interpretation of the relevant article of the General Health Law commits them to some unpalatable implications. Second, I refer to interpretative criteria set out by Mexico’s Supreme Court of Justice to show that the objector’s interpretation is flawed. Finally, I show, using an ordinary language approach, that the objector’s interpretation is flawed, because it renders the law inoperable. I conclude that a legislative amendment is justified, in order to ensure legal clarity and ethical consistency in uterine transplantation practices.