By Zoe Martina Siegel
There is a push for greater knowledge regarding organ transplants and donation in Saudi Arabia. Abdul Aziz Al-Turki, the chairman of Ethar, reminded the public of how important these issues are: “A single brain-dead patient can save the lives of nine other patients who are in dire need of different vital organs.”
Prince Saudbin Naif, the Eastern Province Governor,also supports this awareness campaign. He plans to host lectures and …

By Abrigul Lutfalieva
Face transplantation is an important recent development in reconstructive surgery for patients who have suffered the partial or whole loss of their face due to illness or injury. Recently, the Russian Health Ministry indicated that it will expand the list of transplantable body parts to enable face transplants.
In anticipation of this expansion, a group of doctors and scientists from St. Petersburg Medical University have been using corpses and …

By Kaitlyn Schaeffer
Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have made a breakthrough for regenerative medicine. One of the most serious problems associated with getting artificial  kidneys to function in the body of a recipient is the tendency of the recipient’s blood vessels to close, preventing the transplanted organ from receiving blood. The scientists, using human-sized pig kidneys, have developed the most successful method to date of keeping these blood vessels open.
“Until now, lab-built kidneys …

By Andrew Rock
A severe shortage of organs for transplant in Australia has led to a bizarre and ethically questionable phenomenon: doctors have begun harvesting organs from diseased patients in the “upper age limit,” those 80 and over.
The shortage is the result of two main causes. Australia has one of the highest rates of refusal for donation in the developed world – 45% – a figure driven primarily by the wishes …

By Andrew Rock
The World Health Organization estimates that current organ supply meets only a tenth of its need. This persistent shortage has led many people to search for organs elsewhere, resulting in a thriving black market. Desperate individuals who turn to the global marketplace usually enlist the services of a broker; brokers often charge $100,000 or more, a sum that is significantly more than what organ donors can expect to …

By Kaitlyn Schaeffer
A recent article in The New York Times has alerted the public to the enormous gap between supply and demand for organs worldwide. Reporter Kevin Sack revealed that not only are thousands of people participating in the global organ black market, they are also paying exorbitant sums to get their hands on much-need organs for loved ones.
Absent any national policy that might increase post-mortem organ donation or a …

By Asha Prasad
In a pilot study conducted at Imperial College London, five patients underwent an experimental treatment for stroke that utilized the participants’ own stem cells. To create the therapy, researchers extracted CD34+ cells, the set of stem cells in bone marrow that create blood cells and blood vessel lining cells, and injected them into an artery that feeds into the brain. Instead of morphing into brain cells themselves, CD34+ …

By Asha Prasad
In many countries around the world, religious principles sometimes clash with scientific advancement. Spiritual concerns often keep people from donating organs, and sometimes from receiving them.
This is not the case in India, however, contrary to what many believe. An article that outlines what different religions have to say about organ donation notes that various Hindu texts recognize the donation of organs as a good thing. Spiritual teacher Ravi …

By Kaitlyn Schaeffer
Every year in the United States, 4,000 people die waiting for a kidney. Worldwide, the discrepancy between supply and demand is similarly dismal: the World Health Organization estimates that only about 10% of the need for kidneys is supplied by the current availability of organs.
Despite its illegality in most countries, there is a thriving market for organs worldwide. Kevin Sack of the New York Times has spent the …

By Kaitlyn Schaeffer
Three thousand people in the United States are currently on the waiting list for a heart transplant. Unfortunately, only about 2,000 donor hearts become available every year. Those patients awaiting transplants must instead rely on machines to circulate their blood for them, devices that put them at risk for blood clots, internal bleeding, and various infections.
Dr. Muhammad M. Mohiuddin of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s Cardiothoracic …