Organ Donation

  • Read more: Organ Transplant Malpractice and the “Proximate Cause”
    Article

    Organ Transplant Malpractice and the “Proximate Cause”

    By Alex Stein Everyone interested in that area must read Shierts v. University of Minnesota Physicians, — N.W.2d — (Minn.App.2014), 2014 WL 7344014. This important – yet, unreported – decision deals with a medical-malpractice action arising out of the patient’s death from cancer contracted from a donated pancreas. The trial court dismissed the action summarily based…

  • Read more: What’s Wrong with Selling Organs (and a Taxonomy of Taboo Trade/Commodification Objections)
    Article

    What’s Wrong with Selling Organs (and a Taxonomy of Taboo Trade/Commodification Objections)

    By I. Glenn Cohen Many people – non-philosophers especially, but some philosophers as well – loosely use the term “commodification” as an objection to a “taboo trade”. By “taboo trade” I mean the sale of a good or service such as an organ, sperm, egg, surrogacy, prostitution, etc. This is unhelpful since it means that…

  • Read more: Using Tissue Samples to Make Genetic Offspring after Death
    Article

    Using Tissue Samples to Make Genetic Offspring after Death

    By Yu-Chi Lyra Kuo Last month, John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka were jointly awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for Medicine for their research on induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).  iPSCs are capturing the public imagination as embryonic stem cells did fifteen years ago, but without the controversy surrounding the destruction of embryos: iPSCs can be…