By Rose Bowen
Last week, JAMA Internal Medicine published an article detailing the findings of an investigation into the effects that state policies have on organ donation and transplantation in the United States. Using data from 1988-2010, the researchers found that the majority of state policies promoting voluntary organ donation are ineffective at reducing the current organ shortage, one of our nation’s biggest public health concerns. According to the study, 124,000 …

By Kaitlyn Schaeffer
Yesterday, the California Senate passed the End-of-Life Option Act by a vote of 23 to 14. The bill, if it garners approval from the Assembly and Governor Jerry Brown, will make it legal for California residents with terminal illnesses to end their lives with doctor-prescribed medication.
The bill was modeled after Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act.
While assisted death has long been a subject of debate among Californians, Brittany Maynard …

By Remy Servis
This week, doctors at Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas completed the world’s first partial skull and scalp transplant on Jim Boysen, a 55-year-old man from Austin. Since receiving a kidney-pancreas transplant 23 years ago, Mr. Boysen has been taking immunosuppressants to prevent rejection of the new organs. These drugs, while crucial to the quality of Mr. Boysen’s health after the initial transplant, began to affect the smooth muscle …

By Grace Kim
As mentioned in a previous article, approximately 21 people die a day from waiting for organs, and there is an increasing need for organ donors—a higher demand for donations than there is available.
Despite ways to try and increase the number of organ donors, attempts are backfiring. In an interview on NPR, the most common approach to appeal to organ donors is at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). …

by Remy Servis
Bionic, genetically modified “super-humans” have always seemed like a concept of the far future to our common culture’s understanding of evolution and human development. However, with research on altering the human germline becoming more and more prevalent in the scientific community, the possibility of such a being is not as far away as one would expect.
In an article released by the Office of Science and Technology Policy of …

By Kaitlyn Schaeffer
When stem cells were first discovered, their potential to alleviate suffering and cure disease was considered almost unbounded. However, their application to therapies has greatly outpaced research. Certain cancers are now treatable using stem cell-based techniques, but the vast majority of stem cell procedures are being conducted without any evidence that they are effective or safe.
Many years ago, physicians in Japan and South Korea created a “fat-based stem …

By Grace Kim
Approximately 21 people die a day from waiting for organs, and about 4,000 people are added to the national waiting list every month. The demand for organs is dramatically increasing, but the supply is increasingly diminishing.
A lab at Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Imaging in North Carolina offers a potential solution: Bioprinting. Bioprinting operates similarly to 3-D printing but the result of bioprinting is the opportunity to produce …

By Kaitlyn Schaeffer
Every year, thousands of people in the United States die waiting for organs. In an effort to inform legislation that might reduce the current organ shortage, researchers at several national universities undertook studies that examined whether certain circumstantial factors might influence people’s tendency to become an organ donor.
Judd Kessler from the University of Pennsylvania and Alvin Roth from Stanford analyzed data collected from California residents following a change …

By Grace Kim
In vitro fertilization, otherwise known as IVF, is a reproductive technology used as a means to help women get pregnant. As outlined by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, IVF requires five basic steps. First, stimulation is required to boost ovulation in order to produce more than one egg. Then, the eggs are removed from the woman’s body. The eggs are then inseminated with sperm, leading to fertilization. …

By Caroline Song
A 59-year-old woman in the United Kingdom is making history: she is looking for a sperm donor to fertilize her deceased daughter’s eggs so that she can gestate her own grandchild.
Her daughter, known only as Ms. A, was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2005, and succumbed to the disease in 2011 at the age of 28. After receiving her diagnosis, Ms. A decided to have some of her …