A study published in Cell Stem Cell looks at the growth of humanized kidneys in pigs from stem cells.    … read more

A paper published in Nature suggests cellular recovery can occur in pigs after death.   Prof Martin Monti, Professor of … read more

An analysis,  published in the Journal of Medical Ethics, argues that sperm donation after death, to a stranger, should be allowed … read more

In October last year Theresa May announced plans to bring in opt-out organ donation to address the shortage of organs … read more

Despite a 50% increase in deceased organ donation, there is still a significant gap between the need and availability of organs for transplant. NHS Blood and Transplant together with the four UK health departments have led the development of a new strategy will look to achieve a revolution in attitudes to organ donation across the UK. read more

Donor-conceived people born as a result of donations made after April 2005 will be able to contact their donor, if they wish, when they reach the age of 18. This report addresses if, how and when information about donor conception should be shared between donor-conceived people, parents, donors, and health professionals. read more

Following on from the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority’s (HFEA) new guidelines on how much compensation sperm and egg donors can receive, the HFEA came to the SMC to announce plans to tackle wider issues around public awareness, donor recruitment and good care of donors. The HFEA is launching a new National Donation Strategy Group which will bring together a wide range of experts in the field of donor recruitment and donor care. read more

The meeting held by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority discussed whether egg and sperm donors should be compensated more than they currently receive. read more

This briefing, run in collaboration with the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, launched their new report Human bodies: donation for medicine and research. The report considered how far we should go in trying to encourage people to donate their bodily material. read more

Comments on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority’s public consultation into its policies on egg and sperm donation. read more

The Humn Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) launched a public consultation into its policies on egg and sperm donation, seeking views on issues including compensation for donors, the number of families a donor can donate to, and donation within families. read more

Scientists comment on procedures put in place as a result of the Redfern Inquiry, which concluded that the removal of organs and tissues from workers at nuclear plants should not have happened. read more

This briefing launched a consultation run by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics on how to respond to the high demand for human organs and tissue for donations and research, and the ethics of how to encourage more people to donate bodily materials such as organs, eggs and sperm. read more

Hannah Clark, who had a donor heart grafted onto her own after suffering heart failure as a baby, has made a full recovery. After a decade, the donor heart was removed as her own heart had recovered sufficiently to operate on its own. Three and a half years after this second operation, Hannah’s full story is told in a Lancet article and featured in this Lancet briefing. read more

Brains need to be donated for medical research if we are to have any hope of finding a cure for diseases such as Alzheimer’s, autism and Parkinson’s. Suitable brains are hard to come by and scientists are in extremely short supply, which means that research may soon grind to a halt. Experts at this background briefing answered questions including how many brains we have and how many are needed, and what they will enable us to do in terms of research towards treatments for these diseases. read more

The UK Organ Donation Taskforce was asked by government to review the evidence for moving to a system of ‘presumed consent’, whereby all indivuduals would be automatically presumed to have given consent to organ donation unless they specifically opted out. The Taskforce reached the conclusion that the evidence does not support this move at the present time. read more

The UK Organ Donation Taskforce has been asked by government to look at whether a move to an ‘opt out’ system would save lives by making more organs available for transplant. The Taskforce’s work involved taking evidence form a wide range of stakeholders, 6 sub committees working on different aspects, a systematic review of all published literature, a comprehensive series of deliberative public events and one to one interviews with 17 different faiths. This report is the most comprehensive investigation into presumed consent ever carried out and the findings were launched at the Science Media Centre. read more

Earlier this year, several high profile figures including the Prime Minister and the Chief Medical Officer announced their preference to see the UK following Spain in moving towards a system of ‘presumed consent’ in organ donation, whereby individuals are automatically assumed to have agreed to donate their organs after death unless they specifically opt out, so as to increase the numbers or organs available for donation. However many experts close to the front line of transplant medicine are now raising serious concerns which they feel have not been heard in the debate, and have argued that the evidence from Spain does not in fact support such a move. The Science Media Centre invited three leading experts to brief journalists about their concerns about changing from opting in to opting out. read more

The Task Force’s recommendations included a national network of teams for retrieving donated organs, and to increase the numbers of operations. read more

In a landmark event organised by the Human Tissue Authority (HTA), an altruistic kidney donor and her recipient were brought together publicly for the first time in the UK to talk about their experience of living-donor transplants. This follows on from the first paired altruistic kidney transplants which took place earlier this year. read more