May 14, 2019
Organ Donation / Transplantation
May 13, 2019
Czech Lawmakers Are Finalizing Draft Amendment to the Organ Transplant Law
May 10, 2019
My Liver, Your Kidney: the World’s First Non-Identical Organ Swap
(New Scientist) – So Deveza came up with a different plan. In 2017 she instigated the world’s first paired exchange of different organs between living donors, swapping half her liver for someone else’s kidney. A case study of the organ … Read More
May 8, 2019
The Kidney Brokers: Yemeni Organs Sold for $5,000 in Egypt
(Al Jazeera) – An Egyptian hospital and officials at the Yemeni embassy in Cairo were involved in a large-scale organ-trafficking ring from 2014 that included hundreds of patients and brokers from Yemen and Egypt, an Al Jazeera investigation has revealed. … Read More
May 6, 2019
Belgium Passes Law to Penalize Medical Tourism for Organ Transplants
(The Epoch Times) – Belgium’s primary legislative body passed a new bill on April 25 that would punish all parties involved in the buying and selling of human organs for commercial purposes. Violators face up to 20 years imprisonment with … Read More
May 6, 2019
Discarded No More: HCV-Infected Organs Advance Transplantation
(Medscape) – Many of the HCV-positive donor organs are from drug overdose deaths, which have increased from 7 to 21 per 100,000 persons between 1999 and 2016. But if these potential donors otherwise meet the standard criteria for donation, this … Read More
May 3, 2019
Death by Organ Donation: Euthanizing Patients for Their Organs Gains Frightening Traction
(USA Today) – At international medical conferences in 2018 and 2019, I listened as hundreds of transplant and critical care physicians discussed “donation after death.” This refers to the rapidly expanding scenario in Canada and some Western European countries whereby … Read More
April 30, 2019
In a World First, Drone Delivers Kidney for Transplant
(U.S. News & World Report) – In what researchers are calling a groundbreaking achievement, an unmanned drone delivered a new kidney for a 44-year-old Baltimore woman. On April 19, the aircraft delivered the donor kidney that was successfully transplanted by … Read More
April 23, 2019
Hospital Sues over New National Liver Transplant Policy
(Medical Xpress) – Hospitals and patients have sued to block a new nationwide liver transplant policy that they say will waste viable livers, lead to fewer transplants and likely cause deaths. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and … Read More
April 23, 2019
China Executes Prisoners for Organ Transplants
(Medical Daily) – A recent report revealed that China has kept a dark medical secret from the rest of the world. It was found that those who had kidney transplants in the country were receiving organs from executed prisoners. Their … Read More
April 8, 2019
Organ Donors with Hepatitis C Eligible for Donating Heart and Lungs, Says Study
(Tech Times) – Donated organs of people who have hepatitis C can be transplanted to patients in need without fear of infection, a new study found. Researchers from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital reported that they were able to prevent … Read More
April 3, 2019
Do Animals Hold the Key to the Global Organ Shortage?
(The Guardian) – Researchers in South Korea are expected to transplant pig corneasinto humans within a year. A handful of groups across the US are also working toward pig organ clinical trials in the next few years, including a group … Read More
April 3, 2019
Nova Scotia Set to Be First in North America with Presumed Consent for Organ Donation
(The Globe and Mail) – The words tattooed on Cindy Ryan’s left forearm are a constant reminder of the importance of organ donation in her life: “Recycle Yourself – Together We Live On.” A two-time liver transplant recipient, Ms. Ryan … Read More
March 28, 2019
World’s First Living Donor HIV-to-HIV Kidney Transplant Delivers Hope
(UPI) – The world’s first kidney transplantation from a person living with HIV to a recipient also living with HIV took place on Monday. Surgeons at Johns Hopkins Medicine performed the procedure on Nina Martinez, a 35-year-old woman living with … Read More
March 26, 2019
A New Edition of Clinical Ethics Is Now Available
Clinical Ethics (vol. 13, no. 4, 2018) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Ambiguity, Death Determination, and the Dead Donor Rule” by Will Lyon “The Zone of Parental Discretion and the Complexity of Paediatrics: A Response to Alderson” … Read More
March 6, 2019
Japan Relaxes Rules on iPS Cell Research, Potentially Paving Way for Growth of Human Organs in Animals
(The Japan Times) – The green light has been given to a controversial research process that involves implanting human stem cells inside animals and could eventually lead to growing human organs for transplant inside animal hosts. The decision by the … Read More
February 21, 2019
Child Donors’ Psychological Risk Unknown
(Medical Xpress) – Harvesting of marrow or blood stem cells has no therapeutic benefit for the donor child, says Dr. Shin-Ning Then from QUT’s School of Law in her new book Children as Tissue Donors: Regulatory Protection, Medical Ethics and … Read More
February 18, 2019
The Devastating Allure of Medical Miracles
(Wired) – Consent in hand transplants is devilishly slippery: Can a person who has lost a hand properly weigh the allure of soon regaining such a vital part of themself against the seemingly distant probabilities of suffering treatment’s possible harms? … Read More
February 11, 2019
Organ Trafficking in Egypt: ‘They Locked Me in and Took My Kidney’
(The Guardian) – Dawitt’s story is more common than statistics suggest. According to a 2018 report, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has collected data on 700 incidents of organ trafficking, primarily from north Africa and the Middle … Read More
February 8, 2019
How an Economist’s Idea to Create Kidney Transplant Chains Has Saved Lives
(PBS) – What happens if you need a kidney transplant and don’t know someone who is a biological match? A Nobel prize-winning economist has a solution: transplant chains. Donors agree to give to a stranger in exchange for a kidney … Read More
February 6, 2019
Call for Retraction of 400 Scientific Papers Amid Fears Organs Came from Chinese Prisoners
(The Guardian) – A world-first study has called for the mass retraction of more than 400 scientific papers on organ transplantation, amid fears the organs were obtained unethically from Chinese prisoners. The Australian-led study exposes a mass failure of English … Read More
February 4, 2019
Transplanting Pig Kidneys in Humans, 3D Organ Printing and Other Futuristic Innovations to Solve the Organ Shortage
(CNBC) – Now researchers, doctors and policymakers are exploring new strategies to increase the supply of organs needed to meet demand. Among the promising pursuits: advancing stem cell research in an effort to heal damaged organ tissue; developing biofabrication techniques … Read More
February 4, 2019
Man Who Died in Mexico Flown Home ‘Without Brain, Stomach and Heart’
(News.com.au) – The body of a Korean man who died in Mexico of “natural causes” has been flown home with missing organs, prompting his widow to speak out. The 35-year-old (known only as Mr Kim) leaves behind two children and … Read More
January 31, 2019
Someday, a Pig’s Heart Might Save a Child’s Life
(U.S. News & World Report) – The supply of donor organs for infants needing a heart transplant is critically low, but researchers have taken a first step toward using pig hearts to fill the need. The concept of using animal … Read More
January 24, 2019
Alcohol-Linked Diseases Overtakes Hep C as Top Reason for Liver Transplants
(Kaiser Health News) – An estimated 17,000 Americans are on the waiting list for a liver transplant, and there’s a strong chance that many of them have alcohol-associated liver disease. ALD now edges out hepatitis C as the No. 1 … Read More
