By Evangelia Lazaris

Jacquelyn Shaw is writing in response to Dr. Stephen Beed’s concerns about previous comments made on presumed consent and organ donation. She argues that the quality of brain death determination goes hand-in-hand with the quality of the tests used to confirm brain death. Though Beed supports the brain death tests that, since 2003, have been adopted across Canada, Shaw states that these tests are, in fact, unsafe and …

By Jake Stern

Scientists at the University of Missouri in Columbia have successfully implanted human stem cells into genetically modified pigs with compromised immune systems, paving the way for future advances in research using non-human animal subjects. In the past, stem cell research has been constrained by cell rejection, which is caused by the significant differences between the immune systems of the animal subjects (for example, mice) and human patients. However, …

By Marc Beuttler

The Obama administration has decided not to revoke an insurance coverage mandate for transplant recipients. The life-preserving medication these patients require can cost more than $2,000 a month, and if the proposal to relax insurance coverage for transplant recipients had been adopted, drug costs would have jumped for vulnerable populations.
Many people already cannot afford what they currently pay for life-preserving drugs. Since 2006, a federal guarantee requires all …

By Jake Stern

Over the past two weeks in Nepal, fifteen organ traffickers have been arrested and charged with illegal kidney trafficking. The growing demand and dwindling supply of kidneys has forced many poor individuals in the country to rely on the illegal organ trade. Involvement in trafficking organs is punishable by up to 10 years in jail and a fine of 7,000 dollars. The trade is so popular in the …

By Abrigul Lutfalieva

Johns Hopkins University researchers created a three-dimensional complement of human retinal tissue in the laboratory, which includes functioning photoreceptor cells capable of responding to light, the first step in the process of converting it into visual images.
The study leader M. Valeria Canto-Soler, Ph.D., an assistant professor of ophthalmology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine mentioned that:”We have basically created a miniature human retina in a dish …

By Rebecca Moore

Thought to be an artistic exploit or act of martyrdom, Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh severed his left ear after a psychotic episode in 1888. Van Gogh’s ear has never been recovered, with legends surrounding its mysterious disappearance. Only now with the capabilities of modern technology has the ear resurfaced.
In an effort to combine art and science, artist Diemut Strebe has reconstructed Vincent van Gogh’s ear. Using genetic material …

We’ve all seen and heard ads that begin with grim statistics:
“Every 10 minutes a new name appears on the organ transplant waiting list.”
“If you’re a woman, you have a 1 in 8 lifetime risk of breast cancer.”
“If you’re a man, you have a 1 in 6 chance of developing prostate cancer during your lifetime.”
But these statistics may be overly dramatic and conceal important truths. Robert H. Shmerling, M.D., of the …

The Philippine Red Cross is undertaking a nationwide organ donation campaign in an attempt to extend and save the lives of those who are on organ transplant waiting lists. Health Department records show that as of March 2014, 100,215 people are waiting for organs, and most of those individuals are dialysis patients. PRC Chairman Richard Gordon said that very few Filipinos elect to donate their organs as compared to other …

By Marc Beuttler

Dr. Stephen Beed, professor of medicine and critical care physician at Dalhousie University, responded yesterday to the growing debate on presumed consent policy in organ donation.After Nova Scotia’s health minister recently broached the topic in an effort to improve organ donation rates, Jaquelyn Shaw, a health researcher in Halifax, responded with an inflammatory piece on presumed consent that was “rife with factual errors”, according to Dr. Stephen Beed.
Beed …

By Caroline Song

In Belmont, MA, Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital researchers have found a way to create better therapies for Parkinson’s disease. Fetal dopamine cells are transplanted in the brains of individuals with Parkinson’s disease and remained healthy and functional for nearly 14 years. The transplanted cells were able to create connections and function as nerve cells. Further research showed that the transplants were uncorrupted in the brains of 5 patients upon …