A scholar who has studied imprisonment explains why the promise of sentence reductions in return for organ donation raises ethical issues about whether inmates can ever consent freely.
Contrary to what we may think, changing people’s default status from non-donor to donor cannot significantly increase organ donation rates — as long as the family is involved in the decision.
No, it’s not like donating a kidney. But it is still a gift.
A limited supply of donor organs, paired with a massive demand for transplants, has fuelled the global organ trafficking industry, which exploits poor, underprivileged and persecuted members of society as a source of organs to be purchased by wealthy transplant tourists.
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China’s industrial-scale organ trafficking practice has been executing prisoners of conscience and using their organs for transplantation for decades. This is known as forced organ harvesting.
Xenotransplantation has made significant strides over the past few decades.
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One tissue donation can save or improve the lives of more than 65 people. So it’s important to unpack and address the reasons South Africans are reluctant to register as tissue and organ donors.
The need for donated organs can be addressed using a novel 3D-printing technique.
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Printing organs could reduce the need for human donor organs. And 3D printed organs using a patient’s own cells would increase successful organ transplants by reducing the risk of rejection.
New research shows that heart activity may not always end with a flatlined monitor.
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Deemed consent organ donation means that everyone is assumed to be an organ donor unless they opt out, but assuming consent raises some ethical issues.
Eighty-five per cent of Ontarians support organ donation, but only one-third have opted in under the current system.
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Thousands of Canadians are on waiting lists for life-saving organ transplants. An opt-out organ donor system, like the one Nova Scotia is implementing, could reduce avoidable deaths and suffering.
Accepting a donor kidney with a small risk of carrying HIV or hepatitis B or C might be worth thinking about.
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Organs from gay men or injecting drug users, often rejected for transplants, could safely be used, so long as donors test negative for infections such as HIV, and hepatitis B and C.
The idea of human-animal hybrids can raise a lot of questions and it’s easy to feel they are “unnatural” because they violate the boundaries between species.
The number of potential organ donors who are obese is on the rise.
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As the rate of obesity in the US rises, transplant centers are debating whether to accept organ donations from the obese. A new study suggests that oversized hearts are safe to use.
Will this help the thousands of Americans who need a kidney transplant get one in time?
Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
The need for organs to transplant far exceeds the supply.
It is currently legal for Canadians to travel abroad and obtain organs from illicit sources. If it gains final approval from the Senate, Bill S-240 will change this.
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England is moving to an opt-out organ donation scheme. Here’s how it could be a success.
A Nova Scotia woman displays the tattoo that marks her two liver transplants at the provincial legislature in Halifax in April 2019. The province’s Human Organ and Tissue Donation Act will allow Nova Scotians to donate their organs and tissue unless they opt out.
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Most Canadians support organ donation after death, but fewer than 25 per cent have registered to donate their organs. What can be done to encourage more registrations?
It’s not always clear where human organs come from in research papers.
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International standards ban publication of research that involves any biological material from executed prisoners, that lacks human research ethics committee approval and that lacks consent of donors.
Many countries around the world can’t meet the demand for donor organs.
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Visiting Professor in Biomedical Ethics, Murdoch Children's Research Institute; Distinguished Visiting Professor in Law, University of Melbourne; Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics, University of Oxford
Professor of Bioethics & Medicine, Sydney Health Ethics, Haematologist/BMT Physician, Royal North Shore Hospital and Director, Praxis Australia, University of Sydney