Organ Donation

Is intellectual disability a reason to deny an organ transplant?

Michael Cook | 18 January 2012

A 3-year-old girl who was allegedly denied an opportunity for a kidney transplant because she was “mentally retarded” has sparked a debate in the US media. Amelia Rivera has a rare genetic disease known as Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome that can cause mental impairment, seizures and kidney failure. However, her parents were told by doctors at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia that there would be no transplant.

Organ donation overhaul contentious

Jared Yee | 17 December 2011

A New South Wales government proposal to prevent families from overturning their deceased relatives’ wishes on organ donation has garnered mixed reactions.

Waste not, want not

Michael Cook | 19 November 2011

The editor of the leading journal Bioethics, Udo Schulenk regards capital punishment as a “barbaric practice”, it seems a shame to waste potentially life-saving organs of executed Chinese prisoners. It is a classic example of utilitarian reasoning.

Alcoholics get second chance at liver transplants

Jared Yee | 18 November 2011

Gravely ill alcoholics who need a liver transplant should not always have to prove they can stay sober for six months to get one, doctors have said in a study.

Alarm at proposal to scrap dead donor rule

Michael Cook | 06 November 2011

Let’s scrap the fiction that most patients are dead when their organs are removed and allow doctors to take them from people who are still living. This is the provocative proposal by doctors from Canada and Spain which is creating a stir in bioethics circles.

Daughter will receive transplant of her mother’s womb

Jared Yee | 26 October 2011

Melinda Arnold, after many years of wanting to be a mother, is set to receive a transplant of her mother’s womb.

National self-sufficiency in organ donation is essential, say experts

Michael Cook | 21 October 2011

Leading transplant surgeons have published an article in The Lancet calling upon governments to adopt a “new paradigm of self-sufficiency” so that patients stop seeking “ illegal and unethical organ transplants in remote parts of the world but return home for complicated medical care”. Every year, about 100,000 patients have organ transplants, but many more are on waiting lists. Affluent patients become impatient, go abroad and buy organs on the black market.

Organ donors need compensation, says UK bioethics think tank

Michael Cook | 15 October 2011

Organ donors should have their funerals subsidised and women who donate their eggs for research should be paid, says an influential British bioethics think tank. In a new report, “Human bodies: donation for medicine and research”, the Nuffield Council for Bioethics argues that altruism should remain at the heart of organ and tissue donation -- but people do respond more readily to financial incentives.

Interview: Art Caplan on boycotting Chinese organ transplants

Michael Cook | 11 October 2011

In response to the “barbarous practice of obtaining organs from executed prisoners” in China, the prominent US bioethicist Arthur Caplan, together with other experts, proposed an international boycott of organ transplants in China in a recent issue of The Lancet. Chinese doctors and scientists would be excluded from conferences, journals, and collaborative research. BioEdge asked Professor Caplan to elaborate on the situation in China.

Organ trafficking on the rise in Korea

Jared Yee | 23 September 2011

“Everything has been screwed up. My last hope is to sell my kidney or liver. So please call me if you’re interested,” a message on a Korean website reads, along with a phone number.

Controversy over possible changes to US organ donation

Michael Cook | 23 September 2011

Criteria for organ donation in the US may change radically, if proposals by the United Network for Organ Sharing, which controls the allocation of organs, are implemented, the Washington Post has reported.

Patients given HIV-infected organs

Jared Yee | 31 August 2011

One of Taiwan’s best hospitals has admitted that organs infected with HIV were mistakenly transplanted into 5 patients after a hospital worker misheard the donor’s test results by telephone.

Repay student loans by selling a kidney, says British academic

Jared Yee | 05 August 2011

Kidney donors should be paid £28,000 for their organs, says an academic who claims the move could help students pay off their university debts.

British doctors back presumed consent

Michael Cook | 02 July 2011

Support for the legalisation of presumed consent for organ donation will remain the official policy of the British Medical Association. A lively debate at the BMA’s annual conference in Cardiff rejected a motion to reconsider an op-out policy. The BMA backs “soft” presumed consent, which considers donation the default position but takes the views of relatives into account. Donation does not proceed if a relative objects, even if the donor is not on an opt-out register. No jurisdiction in the UK

Black market organ trade uncovered in Japan

Michael Cook | 25 June 2011

Strict regulations in Japan have failed to stop a black market trade in organs. This week police arrested 5 people over a kidney transplant organised through a yakuza gang.

Woman to donate womb to her daughter

Jared Yee | 17 June 2011

Sara Ottoson, 25, of Stockholm, Sweden, could be the first woman to bear a child using the same womb in which she was conceived and carried to term.

Belgian transplant surgeons use lungs from euthanased patients

Michael Cook | 12 June 2011

Using organs from euthanased patients seem to have become a well established procedure in Belgium, only nine years after it was legalized. A press release from a team at a hospital in Leuven announced yesterday that it had successfully transplanted lungs from four euthanased patients between 2007 and 2009.

Canadian doctors debate transplants for foreigners

Michael Cook | 30 April 2011

China considers financial incentives to promote organ donation

Jared Yee | 29 April 2011

Why is Spain so good at organ transplantation?

Jared Yee | 07 April 2011

Spain is renowned for many things – bullfighting, football, food and film - and organ donation