Tissue Donations

There are thousands of burn victims awaiting donations of human tissue to help meet critical needs in reconstructive surgery. My current case #49 regards the selling of human tissue donations. It’s a complicated situation where a few medical centers have acquired a partnership with a biotechnological company called Ardias Corporation. Ardias wants to create a tissue bank to help facilitate researchers with disease-specific tissue that will provide a link to accurate genetic sequence with diseases such as cancer. Ardias plans to supply a standard plan and, prior to surgery, patients will be asked if they would like to donate tissue samples.
Surgeons will not be notified of consents and the patients will be securely protected of all information. Hospitals will sell the tissue to Ardias then in turn, Ardias will sell the patient information to biomedical researchers. The selling of human tissue is an ethical practice because it can facilitate better diagnosis and treatment of specific diseases. Human tissue plays an important role in medicine. They are used to help diagnose illness and to treat conditions. For example, a specific tissue such as bone marrow is transplanted into patients suffering from leukemia.
In addition, companies such as “livestrong ” and the “Susan G. Komen Foundation” do support the selling of human tissue. They generally state that it makes it possible for better drug development to help cancer patients. “Since we will all die someday, thinking about how we want our remains to be handled is something we should consider” (Comparini, 2003). Curing diseases is vital for anyone who has one. In the article I read it talks about the difference it has made and how you can go about the whole process of donating your tissue. This gives thousands of people the opportunity to heal or have some type of reconstructive surgery to improve their appearance and give them life again.

Medicine has come along way and more people are living longer. In essence donating tissue can do the exact same thing. Another fascinating thing about donating tissue is that it contributes to the Human Genome Project (HGP). “HGP is the international, collaborative research program whose goal was the complete mapping and understanding of all the genes of human beings” (An overview of the human genome project, 2010). This gives us an idea or where our ancestry immigrated from and possibly what other nationalities we could be related to. They have two sources of how they receive their human tissue.
One is through a surgical procedure and the other is through postmortem patients. HGP is a “transformative textbook of medicine, with insights that will give health care providers immense new powers to treat, prevent and cure disease. “(An overview of the human genome project, 2010) Surprisingly you wouldn’t expect that human tissue would play a big role in the program. One of the most interesting things about the DNA mapping of human beings is the fact that we are all unique individuals, yet we are so much alike. Human beings turn out to be over 99. 99% the same.
An overview of the human genome project, 2010). All the millions of genes that make up the genetic code of each person on earth the things that make us different are less than 1% of 1% of the genes. (An overview of the human genome project, 2010). It is interesting to see what DNA can tell us. HGP is good because of the information it provides for us an entire human species. This project has direct impact on individuals with genetic causes of mental retardation and specific diseases. With it, scientists can study genes that control the way we develop or cause disease.
In essence the selling of human tissue is an innovative way to produce medicine and treatments. It’s a profitable corporation where everyone is happy even the donor knowing they made an effort to help another person with a chance at life. Like I mentioned earlier there are people awaiting and praying they receive human tissues to reconstruct third degree burns that may cover up seventy to ninety percent o there entire body. This is definitely an ethical practice and should be taken more into consideration because it helps out tremendously.
References
http://journalism.berkeley.edu/projects/transplants/about.html
http://www.genome.gov/12011238