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Editor’s observe: Italian surgeon Sergio Canavero introduced on Nov 17 {that a} workforce led by him and Ren Xiaoping, a professor at Harbin Medical College, had transplanted the top of a corpse on the physique of one other, and hinted at finishing up the identical operation on a dwelling human. Huang Jiefu, chairman of the China Nationwide Organ Donation and Transplantation Committee and former vice-minister of well being, shared his views on the topic with China Every day’s Zhang Zhouxiang and Shan Juan. Excerpts observe:
Q: Canavero mentioned the surgical treatment was a hit, as a result of the workforce related the backbone and the blood vessels, utilizing polyethylen glycol as a type of binder. What do you consider the declare?
A: The anatomic construction of the human neck is extra sophisticated than a non-medical-professional can think about. Take the “nerves”, which Canavero referred to, for example. The human neck accommodates the backbone, the accent nerves, the cervical sympathetic nerves, and the nerves connecting the human mind with the human physique quantity in thousands and thousands. So, the workforce might need been in a position to “glue” the nerves, however it’s very troublesome to “efficiently reconnect” all of them.
Q: Canavero additionally hinted that the workforce might carry out the identical surgical treatment on a dwelling human sooner or later. Are there any challenges in such surgical procedures?
A: There are a minimum of two. First, essential human organs, such because the mind, the eyes, the ears, and the inside a part of the nostril, might simply endure everlasting injury due to an absence of blood and/or oxygen. That downside is but to be solved.
Second, even the efficiently transplanted organs face a problem: immunologic rejection. When a human being receives organs or tissues, even cells from one other individual, his/her immune system is very prone to acknowledge them as “alien” and assault it. In severe circumstances, that may very well be deadly. That is why some sufferers who obtain organ transplants must take medicines for the remainder of their lives, which in flip will increase the danger of most cancers.
A majority of the sufferers who’ve had a hand transplant, for instance, needed to get them “indifferent” once more due to fungus an infection or psychological misery.
Q: Does human head transplant violate any current regulation or regulation?
A: Sure. Within the Harbin case, the top transplant concerned two corpses. Legally talking, the corpses must be acknowledged as two residents who donated their physique and head to medical science or a medical experiment after dying.
There are very strict legal guidelines regulating human physique and organ donation in China, and the workforce led by Ren and Canavero has damaged a few of them. The moral fee of the hospital the place they carried out the surgical treatment must be answerable for his or her deeds.
Q: So what are your proposals for strengthening supervision of this sector?
A: We hope our medical professionals and establishments will make investments their treasured assets and intelligence to assist those that really want it. We now have tens of hundreds of sufferers with backbone accidents, and if any medical researcher can obtain a breakthrough in autologous nerve regeneration, it will likely be of monumental assist each to the medical occupation and the sufferers.
Q: What about authorized measures?
A: As I’ve at all times mentioned, we want an modification to the present Human Organ Transplant Regulation. In 2007, when the State Council, China’s Cupboard, issued the regulation, it was a milestone within the discipline of human organ transplant in China. However on Jan 1, 2015, China referred to as an finish to the earlier observe of utilizing organs from prisoners on dying row after their execution.
After that, voluntary donors have turn out to be the one supply of organs for transplants, and but the regulation would not embrace human organ donation. That is why it’s time we amended the regulation.
Moreover, whereas respecting the 2 fundamental rules of human organ donation – freedom of selection and willingness to donate – we also needs to think about offering help, reminiscent of exemption of or discount in medical prices, for poor households.
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