organ donation
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After First Setback, Second Pig Heart Transplant Provokes Cautious Optimism
58-year-old Lawrence Faucette has become a medical milestone this month, being only the second living person in the world to have received a heart transplant from a genetically modified pig. His doctors at the University at Maryland School of Medicine say that Faucette appears to be doing well and that his new heart is functioning…
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Scientists Say They have Found a Way to Create Universal Donor Lungs
Researchers in Canada say they’ve found a way to help people who otherwise would be left languishing on the organ transplant list. In new research this week, they detail converting lungs from people with type A blood into lungs that could be donated to anyone, without heavily damaging them or causing acute rejection. Assuming the…
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Doctors Studied People’s Last Moments of Life to Figure Out When Death Begins
New research suggests that doctors are, thankfully, skilled at correctly identifying a person’s time of death — a crucial aspect of ensuring healthy organs for donation. At the same time, the body can sometimes show flitters of cardiac activity even after death has become truly irreversible, according to the study published in the New England…
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Should You Be Allowed To Sell Your Kidney?
There are currently 96,559 candidates on the list awaiting a kidney transplant in the US, and over 1500 people on the waiting list in Australia. In major cities in the US, the average wait is five to ten years. In Australia, the average wait is over three years. For those on the list, there are…