About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

37 Medico-Legal J. 1 (1969)

handle is hein.journals/medlgjr37 and id is 1 raw text is: THE MEDICO-LEGAL JOURNAL Founded 19oi Vol. 37 1969 Part One EDITORIAL Organ Transplantation Now that the emotional dust-storm is settling it is possible to descry the outlines of current attitudes -o organ transplantation. This vexed topic is touched upon in a statement Prior es in medicine by the British Medical Association's Planning Unit. (Brit. Med. 1. 1, 1969, p. 106). In contrasting heart with kidney transplants the Unit comparc, the large numbers of middle-aged persons with degenerative heart disease with the smaller number of young people who would benefit from kidney grafts. Renal grafting is now a practical proposition, whereas the results of cardiac transplantation, however dramatic, have not yet achieved much success. Further, the number of suitable cadaver kidneys available vastly exceeds that of hearts, and the tendency of the body to reject the grafted kidney is less. Out of 65 patients with end-stage renal disease at St. Mary's Hospital, London, between 1965 and 1968 32 have survived, 22 for more than a year, after receiving cadaver transplants. This substitution of a 50% survival rate for certain death is a major advance, and results are steadily improving (Lancet 1969, 1, p. 1.). The British Medical Association's Planning Unit recommends that an acceler- ated programme of relevant scientific research should have precedence over National Health Service provision for heart and lung grafting. It is not suggested that heart and lung grafting should be discouraged but that emphasis should be placed on the study of rejection and storage. Sometimes the suggestion is heard that preoccupation with organ transplantation takes away surgeons from mundane, though socially beneficial, surgery. On this the Statement is worth quoting- The easy intercaangeability of medical personnel, like the central direction of research, is an adninistrative delusion rather than a practical possibility. Directed to repair herniae - Huddersfield, the surgeon absorbed in organ transplatation is likely to take himself, his skills-and probably most of his team-to Houston or some other centre where their activities would be regarded as a national or civic asset rather than a regrettable form of self-indulgence enjoyed at the public expense. Cadaver organ transplantation does not differ in principle from corneal graft- ing or blood transfusion, which are both generally accepted. There is less fuss made about transplants from live donors as the question of certainty of death

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most