Saturday 23 August 2008

Declaration Opposes Transplant Commercialism, Transplant Tourism, And Organ Trafficking

�All countries should take on steps to govern hammond organ donation and transplantation, thereby ensuring affected role safety and prohibiting unethical practices, according to an article appearing in the September 2008 issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN). The document is a consensus of more than 150 representatives of scientific and medical bodies from around the world, authorities officials, social scientists, and ethicists, wHO met in Istanbul, Turkey, this spring.


Unethical practices related to transplantation include electric organ trafficking (the illicit sales agreement of human organs), transplant commercialism (when an pipe organ is tempered as a commodity), and transplant touristry (when organs given to patients from outside a country cave the country's ability to provide organs for its own population). The Declaration of Istanbul states that because unethical practices are an unwanted consequence of the world-wide shortage of organs for transplantation, each country should implement programs to prevent organ failure and should provide variety meat to meet the transplant needs of its residents from donors within its own population. The therapeutic potential of deceased pipe organ donation should also be maximized.


In an introduction to the Declaration, Dr. Francis Delmonico, professor of surgical operation at Harvard Medical School, emeritus professor of nephritic transplantation at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and the Director of Medical Affairs at The Transplantation Society (TTS), noted that with the increasing use of the Internet and the willingness of patients in rich countries to travel and purchase organs, organ trafficking and transplant tourism have become global problems. Through these practices, which target vulnerable populations in resource-poor countries, "the poor who betray their organs are organism exploited, whether by richer people within their have countries or by transplant tourists from abroad," he wrote. Dr. Delmonico added that transfer tourists also risk physical harm by unregulated and illegal transplantation.


Participants in the Istanbul Summit urge transplant professionals to put an end to these activities and to foster safe and ethical practices for both transfer recipients and donors. The Declaration outlines a telephone number of steps that rump help step-up deceased organ donation and ensure the protection and safety of living donors. It will be submitted to professional organizations and to the health authorities of all countries for consideration. "The legacy of transplantation must not be the needy victims of organ trafficking and transplant tourism but rather a celebration of the giving of health by one individual to another," the Declaration states.


The American Society of Nephrology (ASN) endorses The Declaration of Istanbul on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism. ASN stands with The Transplantation Society, the International Society of Nephrology, and other organizations in condemnatory these practices.


The article, entitled "The Declaration of Istanbul on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism," will appear online at http://cjasn.asnjournals.org/ on Wednesday, August 13, 2008, and in the September 2008 print number of CJASN.


ASN is a not-for-profit organisation of 11,000 physicians and scientists dedicated to the study of nephrology and committed to providing a forum for the promulgation of information regarding the a la mode research and clinical findings on kidney diseases. ASN publishes CJASN, the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN), and the Nephrology Self-Assessment Program (NephSAP). In January 2009, the Society will launch ASN Kidney News, a newsmagazine for nephrologists, scientists, allied wellness professionals, and staff.


American Society of Nephrology (ASN)

1725 I St. NW, Ste. 510

Washington, DC 20006

United States
http://www.asn-online.org



More info