By Caroline Song Kelly Grant, a health reporter for The Globe and Mail, has recently published the article “Nova Scotia eye making organ donation automatic,” which looks at the Nova Scotia governments’ move towards presumed consent in deceased organ donation. The Health Minister Leo Glavine hopes to work in concert with the deputy health minister [...]
By Kayla Santos A new, federal kidney allocation system will reduce the amount of donated kidneys that are discarded by surgeons as well as better match the donor organ to the recipient. In 2012, it was determined that 1 in every 5 donated kidneys was discarded by surgeons because they were deemed unsuitable for transplantation. [...]
By Kaitlyn Schaeffer The great demand for organs worldwide has many serious consequences. Chief among them is the creation of an organ black market; as of 2014, more than 27 million people have been killed for or forced into giving up their organs. In India, instances of black market organ trafficking are skyrocketing. Vulnerable populations, [...]
By Noushaba T. Rashid The Saudi Gazette recently reported from Dammam that for the past 2 years, as many as 410 Saudis have turned to black market organs, mainly kidneys, for illegal transportation. Dr. Faisal Shaheen, the director of the Saudi Center for Organ Transplants (SCOT) states that 220 Saudis bought organs for transplants from [...]
By Marc Beuttler Members of the Scottish parliament and other leaders are calling on the Scottish government to switch to an opt-out system of organ donation. In response to these calls for change, the British Medical Association, the British Heart Foundation and the Kidney Federation, among others met on April 22, at the Scottish parliament [...]
By Zoe Martina Siegel 95 percent of Americans subscribe to believing in organ donation; however, only 40 percent of qualified donors actually register. Dr. Jason T. Siegel, PhD, a lead researcher of Claremont Graduate University, has found that there is a significant difference between people who feel strongly about organ donation and people who feel [...]
By Kaitlyn Schaeffer Two new studies in the most recent edition of The Lancet suggest progress in the transplantation of lab-grown organs. “They both show that by using fairly simple tissue engineering techniques, you can get real tissue forming where it’s supposed to,” said Dr. Margin Birchall of University College London. The simple engineering methods [...]
By Kayla Santos Using stem cells, scientists at London’s Royal Free hospital have been able to create body parts including noses, ears and even blood vessels. The organs have even been used in replacement surgeries for a small number of patients so far. Scaffolds for the organs are made from a type of polymer material; [...]
By Juan Duran In this article, Public health investigators report on a case involving a kidney transplant recipient who contracted rabies after transplantation from an undetected infected donor. A novel approach using social media to map the transmission of the disease was used to identify other potentially infected individuals. An unnamed organ recipient from Maryland, [...]
By Julie Killian About ninety percent of people in the United States are in support of organ and tissue donations, but only thirty percent are thoroughly familiar with the process it takes to become a donor. Every 11 minutes, another person is placed on the waiting list for organ transplantation in the United States. Over [...]
