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.
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Articles on Organ donation
Displaying 1 - 20 of 74 articles
No, it’s not like donating a kidney. But it is still a gift.
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.
Recent successes putting genetically modified pig organs into people have brought xenotransplantation back into the spotlight.
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.
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.
Is a person dead when their heart stops beating? It turns out that the classic “flatline” of death is not so straightforward.
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.
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.
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 number of people choosing to become posthumous donors in the UK has reached 25.3m but this is still considerably lower than other countries.
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.
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.
The need for organs to transplant far exceeds the supply.
When a Canadian travels to China to receive an organ transplant, a member of a persecuted minority may be killed to provide the organ.
England is moving to an opt-out organ donation scheme. Here’s how it could be a success.
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?
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.
Religious and cultural beliefs play a role in the country’s organ donor shortages. But these factors alone grossly oversimplifies the issue.
A parliamentary committee report recommends the Australian government investigate whether an opt-out system could help increase donation rates. But the evidence suggests it wouldn’t.
Top contributors
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Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine (VELiM), University of Sydney
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Senior Teaching Fellow, University of Warwick
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Professor in Clinical Ethics, Macquarie University
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Adjunct Fellow, T.C. Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland
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Senior Lecturer, University of Canberra
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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
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Professor, Medical Ethics, Bond University
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Associate Professor in Health Ethics and Professionalism, School of Medicine, Deakin University
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Professor of Bioethics, University of Sydney
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Senior Lecturer in Medical Ethics and Law, St George's, University of London
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Bioethicist and Health Communication Specialist, University of the Witwatersrand
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Associate professor, Queensland University of Technology
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Professor of Bioethics & Medicine, Sydney Health Ethics, Haematologist/BMT Physician, Royal North Shore Hospital and Director, Praxis Australia, University of Sydney
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Senior lecturer, University of Tasmania
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Honorary Associate at the Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law and Medicine, University of Sydney
