June 29, 2018
(MIT Technology Review) – Bioprinting tissue isn’t a new idea. 3-D printers can make human skin, even retinas. Yet the method, so far, has been limited to tissues that are very small or very thin and lack blood vessels. United … Read More
June 29, 2018
(Quartz) – Figures published for 2017 reveal that 2,183 people in Spain became organ donors last year after they died. That’s 46.9 per million people in the population (pmp)—a standard way of measuring the rate of donation in a country. … Read More
June 27, 2018
(Yahoo!) – Biotech 3D printing startup BioLife4D has successfully produced human tissue in the form of a cardiac patch, the company announced on Monday, bringing it one step closer to printing organs viable for transplant. “What’s interesting about this is … Read More
June 25, 2018
(Thomas Reuters Foundation) – Governments around the world need to do more to stop thousands of organs being trafficked every year, including strengthening legislation and improving regulation of hospitals, an advisor to the World Health Organization said on Friday. Only … Read More
May 24, 2018
(ABC News) – A Kosovo court on Thursday imprisoned two ethnic Albanians for involvement in organ harvesting. The Pristina court international judge Francesca Fischer sentenced former urologist Lutfi Dervishi to 7 years and a fine of 8,000 euros ($9,400). He … Read More
May 23, 2018
(Medical Xpress) – Obstetric fistula refers to the rupturing of tissue between the vagina and the bladder or rectum after prolonged, obstructed labour or, less commonly, violent rape. The condition typically results in urinary or faecal incontinence. Madagascar is one … Read More
May 18, 2018
(NBC) – America’s opioid epidemic has one sad upside: more organs available for lifesaving transplants, researchers reported Wednesday. Close to 14 percent of people who donated an organ in 2016 had died of a drug overdose, the team of experts … Read More
May 18, 2018
(The Epoch Times) – Organ trafficking is a serious criminal offence in Australia but currently, state and commonwealth laws only prevent a person who is in Australia from engaging in an illegal trade of human organs. Loopholes in the legislation mean that … Read More
May 17, 2018
(The Japan News) – A study on growing transplantable human organs in pigs and other animals will likely start as early as this autumn. The project will mark the end of a ban on such research following the publication of … Read More
May 10, 2018
(Scroll.in) – Like in many other spheres, the poor by the accident of their birth stand little chance of receiving life-saving transplants. The domination of the private sector in tertiary healthcare is even starker in transplantation. Transplants in public hospitals are … Read More
May 9, 2018
(Undark) – In the United States, the clock is ticking for more than 114,700 adults and children waiting for a donated kidney or other lifesaving organ, and each day, nearly 20 of them die. Researchers are devising a new way … Read More
May 7, 2018
(The Verge) – A veteran of the US Armed Forces has a new penis and scrotum after the most extensive penis transplant yet, Johns Hopkins Hospital announced this week. Not included in the transplant? Testicles — because the testicles would … Read More
May 2, 2018
Hastings Center Report (vol. 48, no. 2, 2018) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “The Right to Know: A Revised Standard for Reporting Incidental Findings” by G. Owen Schaefer and Julian Savulescu “Nudge or Grudge? Choice Architecture and Parental … Read More
April 30, 2018
(Medical Xpress) – Since the world’s first successful organ transplant in 1954—a kidney—the discipline has advanced to the point where a wounded soldier could have his penis and scrotum replaced in a groundbreaking operation last month. A Frenchman recently became … Read More
April 25, 2018
(Richmond Times-Dispatch) – For 32 years, the nonprofit United Network for Organ Sharing has held the federal contract to run the complex U.S. transplant system, a round-the-clock operation that matches donated organs with the sick people who need them. Richmond-based … Read More
April 18, 2018
(Los Angeles Times) – To preserve more livers for transplant patients who desperately need them, surgeons should take newly harvested organs out of their ice baths and immerse them instead in a warm, nutrient-rich soup, new research suggests. In a … Read More
April 18, 2018
(CNN) – As the opioid epidemic has skyrocketed in the United States, a rise in the number of drug overdose deaths has contributed to a rise in organ transplants, made possible by overdose-death donors, across the country. A study published … Read More
April 17, 2018
(Los Angeles Times) – The widening tragedy that is the U.S. drug-overdose epidemic could have an improbable silver lining: for the 120,000 desperate Americans on the waiting list for a donated organ, the line could get a little shorter. In … Read More
April 17, 2018
(Medscape) – Access to heart transplantation can be unfair in the United States, with patients in some regions ranking higher in priority because cardiologists “overtreat,” which makes patients look sicker and therefore more suitable for emergent intervention than others on … Read More
April 10, 2018
(The Yomiuri Shimbun) – A ban on creating human organs inside the bodies of animals will likely be lifted as early as this autumn, following a planned review of the current guidelines prohibiting such research. An expert panel of the Education, … Read More
March 23, 2018
(Medical Xpress) – Biological sex differences can have far-reaching, clinical consequences, as illustrated by organ transplant outcomes. Men and women who receive donated organs can have different rates of transplant rejection, in some cases influenced by the sex of the … Read More
March 22, 2018
(UPI) – The organs of North Korean refugees are being harvested in China, and the lucrative human organ trade involve Chinese hospitals, private citizens and bounty hunters, a North Korean defector resettled in the United States told UPI Tuesday. Cho … Read More
March 21, 2018
The Journal of Medicine & Philosophy (vol. 43, no. 2, 2018) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “The Moral Status of the Human Embryo” by Mark T Brown “Misconceptions Inherent in the Substance Ontology Approach to Assigning Moral … Read More
March 21, 2018
British Medical Bulletin (vol. 125, no. 1, 2018) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “Xenotransplantation—Current Status and Prospect” by D K C Cooper et al. “Looking Behind the Bars: Emerging Health Issues for People in Prison” by S Stürup-Toft, … Read More
March 16, 2018
Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics (vol. 39, no. 1, 2018) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: “How (Not) to Think of the ‘Dead-Donor’ Rule” by Adam Omelianchuk “The Ethics of Separating Conjoined Twins: Two Arguments Against” by Luke Kallberg “A New … Read More
