By Noushaba T.Rashid

There are official rules that govern face and hand transplants. However, just because you may sign up to be an organ donor on your driver’s license does not automatically sign you up to be a face and hand donor.
The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, which is a nonprofit group under contract with the Federal Government to allocate organs has been facilitating these special kinds of transplants for many …

By Chiru Murage
Researchers at the University of Illinois have published in the online Proceedings of the National Academy of Science about a find that could lead to a new generation of biological robots. These tiny robots are the first of their kind to be made up of biological and mechanical parts. They are the first walking robots to be powered by live muscle, controlled by electric current. Adjusting the frequency …

Following a month-long investigation into a case involving the trafficking of five individuals for the purpose of donating kidneys in Thailand, police have two in custody.
Yem Asisal and her stepfather, Nhem Phally, were apprehended on Tuesday at their home in Phnom Penh after five of their victims filed complaints, according to the chief of Phnom Penh Municipal Anti- Human Trafficking Police. “This is the first case of organ trafficking that …

The results from an eight-year study conducted by researchers from the NIH’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute shed light on a potential cure for sickle cell anemia in adults. The study was conducted at the National Institutes of Health’s Clinical Center in Bethesda, MD, where thirty patients aged 16 to 65 received modified blood stem cell transplants using a combination …

By Marc Beuttler
The difficulty with organ transplantation is that as soon as an organ is removed from the body, the individual cells that compose it begin to die. This limits how far organs can be transported and which organs can be transplanted, resulting in less overall organs available locally to help people in dire need. However, a new technique that has so far only been tried in rat livers shows …

By Caroline Song
Medical Xpress, a web-based medical and health news service has recently published an article titled “Stem cell transplantation for severe sclerosis associated with long-term survival” on June 24, 2014. The article reviews a study published in the June 25, 2014 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, or JAMA. The study conducted by Jacob M. van Laar, M.D., Ph.D., of the University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, …

By Noushaba T.Rashid

Would you trust someone with your limbs and face?Just donating your kidney or liver is something of the past. Now you could donate your hands or your face. How? Why? Becoming an organ donor may mean more than just donating your internal organs. Checking the box on your driver’s license just got a little tricky.
With the onset of modern technology in transplants, the government is gearing up to …

By Marc Beuttler
When people sign up to become organ donors (usually while obtaining a new driver’s license) they also agree to donate bones, cartilage and other tissues that can be transplanted much like organs. While most organ donors don’t realize that they have signed up to be bone and cartilage donors or that it’s even possible to donate these tissues, for many who suffer serious burns, cancer, and other conditions, …

Since the first successful surgery in 2006, face transplant procedures have become more standardized and better understood. In fact, they are now “currently feasible” for children; this new possibility has spurred an ethical dialogue among Canadian physicians. The procedure has the potential to radically transform the lives of children who suffer from devastating facial deformities and for whom no other reconstructive alternatives exist. “Facial transplantation offers a chance  – in …

By Marc Beuttler

In a presentation to the UN Human Rights Council, the outgoing UN Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, highlighted the lack of adequate knowledge of human trafficking for removal of organs. Human trafficking is a vast and dirty industry that generates more than $51 billion dollars annually. This large profit is perhaps due to the increased scope of trafficking in women, men, boys and girls, …