Response to Nix and Weijer: Close Eneph? SARS-CoV-2 challenge studies and altruistic kidney donation

By Abie Rohrig and David Manheim. In a recent blog post, Nix and Weijer argue that living kidney donation and volunteering for a COVID-19 challenge trial are disanalogous, and that “advocates of SARS-CoV-2 challenge studies must look elsewhere to justify the level of risk in these studies.” They offer three arguments to support this view: adverse effects […]

Read More…

Take care when testing manufactured organs on the deceased

By Laura Kimberly, Brendan Parent Every article about the organ transplant crisis starts something like this: In the United States in 2018, over 116,000 individuals were on the waiting list for an organ transplant. Yet of those on the waiting list, only 36,000 (31%) received a much-needed transplant to treat their end-stage organ failure, and […]

Read More…

England’s Opt-Out Policy Consultation – Excluded Organs and Tissues

By Nicola Williams, Laura O’Donovan and Stephen Wilkinson England is about to follow Wales by moving to an ‘opt-out’ system for deceased organ donation. Under such policies individuals are presumed willing to become organ donors after their death unless they have explicitly refused. The new system, also known as ‘deemed’ or ‘presumed’ consent, is expected […]

Read More…

HIV-positive to HIV-negative living donor liver transplant – Life and death decisions

By Harriet Rosanne Etheredge, June Fabian, Mary Duncan, Francesca Conradie, Caroline Tiemessen, Jean Botha Waiting for legislative change in organ transplantation in South Africa feels like “Waiting for Godot”, especially considering the extreme shortage of donor organs in our country.  Anyone who has seen Samuel Beckett’s iconic play by that name will appreciate that as […]

Read More…

Changing the defaults in organ donation: Moving the goalposts or pitch invasion?

By David Shaw Following a wide consultation and debate, the Organ Donation (Deemed Consent) Bill was recently approved by parliament and will come into effect next year. The new legislation resembles the deemed consent regime introduced in Wales in 2013, and a similar scheme is under consideration in Scotland. Currently, people in England who want […]

Read More…

A Moral Framework for Living Donor Transplantation

By Lainie Friedman Ross and J. Richard Thistlethwaite Living donor transplantation has been controversial since its inception because it exposes donors to medical risks for the medical benefit of their intended recipients. The usual bioethics argument about the moral permissibility of living kidney donation focuses on the concept of respect for persons which is often […]

Read More…