By Kaitlyn Schaeffer
Earlier this month, 80 experts from the Transplantation Committee of the Council of Europe (CD-P-TO) gathered in Rome to confer with Pope Francis over the ongoing organ trafficking crisis. Pope Francis has been outspoken against the illegal organ trade and has called upon people to be more generous with donating their organs. Pope Francis supports organ donation in cases of brain death, stressing that such donations should be …

By Zoe Siegel
A recent study conducted by Erasums MC in Rotterdam revealed that organ trafficking has made its way to the Netherlands.
Researchers surveyed 241 care providers who treat kidney patients. Nearly half of the respondents have treated at least one patient who has undergone a kidney transplant abroad, and many suspect that these kidneys were purchased illegally; 31 care providers testified that they knew this for a fact. Their confidence …

By Caroline Song
Korea JoongAng Daily, a Korean English-language newspaper, recently published an article on the innovative efforts of Yonsei Medical School. “3-D Printing in the Operating Room” tells the story of Kim, a teenage high school student who was in a car accident three years ago that left him with serious skull injuries that required surgery. Doctors removed pieces of his cranium and attempted an artificial augmentation. However, his body …

By Amy Xia
The end on an individual’s life is a highly emotional time; some contend that people deserve the choice of a dignified, pain-free passing. Unfortunately, end-of-life care is deeply entrenched in legal issues in Australia, which has made it more difficult for Aussies to take control of the circumstances of their passing. Attempts to change these policies have been largely unsuccessful. Aside from a short period of time in …

By Kaitlyn Schaeffer
Gillian Bennet took her own life on August 18th of this year by ingesting a fatal dose of Nembutal on a cliff near her home. Ms. Bennet had previously been diagnosed with dementia, and in an effort to avoid a “long and terrifying descent” into this mysterious disease, she opted to take matters into her own hands. The act and the blog she wrote (Dead at Noon) detailing …

By Zoe Siegel
President Reagan signed the National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA) 30 years ago. It was hoped that NOTA would end organ shortages by instituting legal guidelines for the transplantation of organs. However, approximately 30 Americans are removed from waiting lists every day because they become too sick to receive transplants or because they perish.
One possible solution to this problem lies in implementing the European model of presumed consent in the …

By Abrigul Lutfalieva
Recently, a Swedish mother became the first woman to successfully give live birth after receiving a womb transplant. The baby boy was born prematurely, but he is healthy and doing well.
Six months after receiving the transplant, the patient got her menstrual period, indicating that the womb was functioning properly.
Dr. Mats Brannstrom, the gynocologist heading up the research team and the doctor who delivered the baby, declared that it …

By Caroline Song
NBCnews.com has recently published an article titled “Bioethicist: Why Brittany Maynard Changes the Right-to-Die Debate” by Arthur Caplan. Maynard has recently been highlighted in the media due to her controversial decision to end her own life after being diagnosed at the age of 29 with a grade four glioblastoma multiform, an aggressive and lethal form of brain cancer.  Maynard was given a timeline of six months to live. …

By Andrew Rock
Many people making end-of-life arrangements consider donating their body to science. It is an option often lauded as practical and useful to society. However, those seeking to do so may face more obstacles than one would expect, according to a family of a recently deceased donor.
Ralph Ward had always wanted to donate his body to medical science. “[He] felt that training a new doctor would be a gift …

By Asha Persad
The University of Barcelona has taken the lead in implementing a new project, called the European-Mediterranean Postgraduate Program on Organ Donation and Transplantation (EMPODaT), a postgraduate program that promotes the initiation of organ donation and transplantation in Egypt, Lebanon and Morocco. The objective of the program is to develop an academic curriculum where students will be trained to become specialists in organ donation and transplantation.
Statistics have shown that …