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3D printed organ transplants have been in the cards for a while, but deep tissue printing has proved problematic. Now a team of scientists in Korea think they have cracked the code for producing functional liver tissue by printing functional mouse liver cells. Simply put, we need more livers than we currently have as hepatitis, cirrhosis and liver cancer are increasingly prevalent. The donor system, meanwhile, is inherently flawed. Patients face agonising treatment while they wait for a suitable liver. There is simply no guarantee they will get a matching organ in time and even if they do, there can...

It’s been since late October that the last shocking expose’ video was released exposing how planned Parenthood and the abortion industry are selling the body parts of aborted babies. Since then, the Senate has approved legislation that would de-fund Planned Parenthood and, once the House signs off on it, the measure will head to pro-abortion President Barack Obama. Now, a trade group for abortion business is attempting to stop the Center for Medical Progress from releasing any more videos and fighting in court to squelch its free speech. In response to the attempt by the National Abortion Federation to censor...

Science publications are hailing research breakthroughs in a new life-saving procedure that harvests the organs of aborted children and transplants them in animals, where they can grow and then be made available to patients. The Genetic Literacy Project website calls the process Xenotransplantation and suggests the biggest question would be, “Would you accept an organ from a pig, cow, baboon or a chimpanzee to save your child’s life, or your own?” The statistics it publishes make a case for the need: More than 123,000 Americans require an organ transplant, but fewer than 30,000 will get one, leaving 21 people to...

A domestic pig on an organic farm in Solothurn, Switzerland. Image: Wikimedia Commons --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stories of people waiting for organ transplants that could save their lives are well known. The numbers, though, are not encouraging. The US Department of Health and Human Services has some data: 122,407 people need a lifesaving organ transplant (total waiting list of candidates). The agency said that the gap between supply and demand continues to widen. The total number of donors from January through May this year was 5,975. On average, 22 people die each day while waiting for a transplant. Here is another statistic:...

There is a shortage of organs available for transplantation. Estimates are that 123,000 people in the U.S. are in need of a transplant, and about 21 people die each day waiting for one. The art and science of transplantation is so advanced as to be routine. Science sees the shortage of organs as a problem to be solved. However, the obtaining of organs from human donors is fraught with difficulties—moral, practical, and legal. There is a shortage of organs available for transplantation.Estimates are that 123,000 people in the U.S. are in need of a transplant, and about 21 people...

A Canadian documentary has alleged that the Chinese state is aware and approves of the removal of organs from live political prisoners, often without anesthetic. Some 10,000 political prisoners are reportedly killed each year, and at least one former worker is willing to testify to atrocities. The documentary, produced by Australia’s SBS Dateline, purports to show the gruesome details of the multi-billion dollar “organs-on-demand” transplant program, and how these Chinese hospitals remove organs from live patients, in some cases putting the people in incinerators before they had even died. The filmmaker, Leon Lee, in an interview with Australia’s News.com, described...

“Potentially unethical.” That’s how one expert described an Italian scientist’s plan to perform a “head transplant” by severing two heads at the same time, then cooling and flushing out the ‘recipient’ head before attaching it to its new body with polymer glue.That is “POTENTIALLY unethical?” Making one person out of two, and throwing away the unused halves, is only “potentially” unethical?Shock and awe.* * * * *Neuroscientist Sergio Canavero is undeterred by criticism, however. Canavero now reports that it’s possible to merge bone marrow, surgically cut with an ultra-sharp knife, when fusing one person’s head onto another person’s spine. The...

When a person receives a new heart do they take on the characteristics of the donor? I remember going to the movies as a child, seeing Frankenstein the monster come to life, a mixture of different cadaver body parts. How silly? Then there was the movie of the severed hand the crawled around murdering people on it's own free will using it's fingers as legs. Is that really possible? Or the head on a platter, hooked up to tubes, alive and talking. Remember those movies? Well, apparently there is some truth involved here. There have been some people that have...

Bioprinting, or the process of creating human tissues through 3D printers, is a highly contested area of technological innovation. Theoretically it could save the economy billions on a global scale, whilst boosting weak or war-torn countries' access to more affordable health care and provision, whether producing prosthetic limbs or highly customised fully-working human organs. From a technological perspective, the rise and development of 3D printing and its capabilities will play an undeniable part in our future lives. But how does the process work? UK-based company PrinterInks has teamed up with US startup Organovo, a company specialised in designing and printing...

Illegal immigrants have boldly demanded everything from civil rights in the U.S. to driver’s licenses and government benefits such as welfare and discounted tuition at public universities, so why stop there? Now they want American taxpayers to finance their organ transplants! This is even more brazen than the discrimination lawsuits illegal aliens have filed against law enforcement agencies—both federal and local—in the U.S. over the years. To make their point, the illegal immigrants have gone on a hunger strike outside an Illinois hospital demanding free organ transplants for themselves and their fellow undocumented comrades. This insanity is taking place outside...

Fourteen people in need of kidney and liver transplants, along with family and friends, have been on a weeklong hunger strike, demanding a spot on a transplant waiting list, which they say they've been denied. The men and women protested Monday outside Northwestern Memorial Hospital, some taking long breaks for dialysis. They said they've been denied a spot on the list because of their illegal residency in the country.

A federal judge in Philadelphia has made a dying 10-year-old eligible to seek donor lungs from an adult transplant list. U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson says he is granting the temporary request because of the severity of Sarah Murnaghan's condition. Her mother, Janet Murnaghan, says the family is thrilled by the ruling. It's in effect until a June 14 court hearing. The family is challenging organ transplant rules that say children under age 12 must wait for pediatric lungs to become available. The Murnaghans say that rarely happens. Sarah's doctors believe they can perform a successful transplant with adult lungs....

The world of organ donation in Denmark is in turmoil. A documentary was aired earlier this month which showed family members reacting in anguish to the news that their 19-year-old daughter was brain dead after a car accident, agreeing to donate her organs and allowing doctors to turn off her respirator. About 1.7 million viewers tuned in to the heart-rending drama. But Carina Melchior did not die after her respirator was removed. She is now undergoing rehabilitation and may make a full recovery. About 500 people immediately removed their names from Denmark’s organ donor register. Doctors at Aarhus University Hospital...

Two illegal immigrants initially denied potentially lifesaving organ transplants could eventually receive the procedures at two area hospitals, according to a source close to the men. The University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center last week agreed to begin evaluating Lorenzo Arroyo, 36, for a liver transplant, while Loyola University Medical Center agreed to evaluate Jorge Mariscal, 23, for a kidney transplant, said the Rev. Jose Landaverde of Our Lady of Guadalupe Anglican Catholic Mission in Little Village. The two men have been previously treated for their conditions at those respective institutions. In a statement, UIC confirmed a transplant evaluation...

Memphis has been singled out for 0’care punishment. This organization services a 3 state region...and if all they can get are livers from Memphis, people will die. Deadline is June 25th TIME IS CRITICAL PLEASE HELP, While you are doing the ONLINE commenting, please contact US Rep Steve Cohen, after all he voted for 0’care, Senators Alexander and Corker, all have local phone numbers. NOT SURE ABOUT THE COPY RIGHT on the Commie Appeal so I did not post the story. This was so urgent our pastor had form letters available...of course I had to set him straight about using...

Without a new kidney, Jesus Navarro will die. Although the Oakland man has a willing donor and private insurance to pay for the transplant, he faces an additional hurdle in the race to save his life: He is an illegal immigrant. That fact prompted administrators at UC San Francisco Medical Center to refuse to transplant a kidney from Navarro's wife because they cannot be sure he will receive adequate follow-up care. Their decision taps into the tension between health care and immigration policies in the state and the role medical professionals should play in trying to save the lives of...

I am going to try and tell you what happened to us on January 10, 2012, in the conference room in the Nephrology department at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. We arrived for our regular Nephrology visit with Amelia’s doctor who has seen her for the last three years. She examines Amelia and sends us for labs. I ask about the transplant and she says we have about six months to a year until she needs one. She tells us she reserved the conference room and when we get back from labs, we can meet with the transplant team and he...

Two scientists at the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute at the University of Pittsburgh discussed the state of xenotransplantation--the use of cells, organs, or tissue from one animal in another--in a review in The Lancet. In that review, they touch on the history of one particular subject: pig-to-human transplants. Their conclusion? Clinical trials of pig-to-human transplants could begin in just a few years. Pigs that are genetically modified with genes to protect their organs and other inside bits from attack by the human immune system are capable of all kinds of potentially life-saving effects. Research has been conducted until now...

Just a few days ago in the Pakistan city of Lahore Muhammad Riaz was feeling very depressed. A very friendly and concerned stranger asked him why he was so unhappy. Mr Riaz told him that with no regular income he was desperate for money. Don’t worry, the man said, I can fix you up with 110,000 Rupees (about £800) by this evening – and all you have to do is sell one of your kidneys to a wealthy Arab.

Tampa, Fla. (Feb. 01, 2010) – A research team from the National Taiwan University Hospital has evaluated the efficiency of transplanted hepatocyte (liver) cells in animal models severely damaged by two kinds of chemical toxicity to see whether and how transplanted hepatocytes were able to efficiently repopulate the toxin-induced, severely damaged livers. The results of this study are published in the current double issue of Cell Transplantation (18:10/11) and are freely available on-line at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct/ . The study was carried out in the on-going effort to evaluate hepatocyte transplantation as an alternative to liver transplantation, not only because of the...