Removal of a Cyst from the Neck of the Bladder of a Dog

On Sept. 23, 1951, a 9-year-old female Collie was admitted to the Stange Memorial Clinic. Iowa State College Veterinarian This case was referred to the clinic by a local veterinarian with a history of the abdomen filling with fluid and difficulty in urinating and defecating

Black-market lottery: organ donation and the international transplant trade

Estimates suggest more than two million people worldwide would benefit from an organ transplant. While the donation rates vary greatly between countries, the contrast between the increasing numbers of people in need and the inadequate numbers of organs being donated mean many will die while they wait. Last night, ABC’s Four Corners screened Tales from the Organ Trade, an HBO documentary that highlights the desperation that links the world’s poor, who sell their organs, together with first-world recipients who buy them on the black market. While accurate statistics are difficult to find, some suggest that up to 15% of the world’s transplants are performed using illegally obtained organs via an international black market web of organ brokers. The brokers bring recipients and donors together with transplant surgeons working out of fly-by-night medical clinics. The process is unregulated, illegal and the risks to both donor and recipient are high. The documentary raises challenging questions about this illegal trade in organs that sometimes benefits both the donor and recipient and other times imperils the well-being of both. There are, no doubt, many more untold horror stories. While some experts argue the sale of organs should be regulated and legalised, most medical professionals strongly discourage their patients from travelling overseas to undergo organ transplants because they have significantly poorer outcomes than those who receive transplants here. So, with Australia widely regarded as a world leader in transplantation outcomes, what would compel anyone to consider such a risky proposition? And why would anyone participate in exploitation like this

Five myths about organ donation in Australia

Australia has some of the world’s highest organ transplant success rates, but, for almost two decades, our deceased organ donation rates have been among the lowest in the developed world. In other words, when it comes to organs, we’re no good at finding them but we’re the best in the world at transplanting them. Recent well-publicised increases in organ donation rates have raised expectations that Australia can sustain meaningful improvement, but the cumulative effect of the increases has moved national performance up from the bottom third of the world’s developed countries and into the bottom half. There’s still only a very limited supply of organs available for those who desperately need them and each year people die waiting for a life-saving transplant. For many years now, enormous attention (and funding) has been devoted to finding ways of raising the organ donation rate. Between 1989 and 2008, more than 20 public and government-led initiatives were launched to address issues believed to be its cause. Unfortunately, they’ve proved ineffective and cumulatively resulted not in an increase in donation, but a decline of around 20%. These failures illustrate misunderstandings about what the country can do to raise its organ donation rates. The idea that Australia is somehow fundamentally different to world leading donor countries, for instance, and incapable of matching their success in organ donation is false. A number of misconceptions lead to such conclusions, and they constitute five myths about organ donation

Richard Haldane and the British Army reforms 1905-1909

These were the accomplishments of Viscount Richard Burdon Haldane, Secretary of State for War form 1905 to 1912. He was the architect of the British Army which acquitted itself with honor in World War I. The Haldane spirit is still evident today

Ethical issues of bone marrow transplantation in children

In the 50 years since the first successful human bone marrow transplant (BMT) was performed in 1959, BMT has become the optimal therapy for a wide variety of life-threatening paediatric haematological, immunological and genetic disorders. Unfortunately, while BMT generally provides the only possibility of cure for such afflicted children, few (25%) have a matched sibling available, and suitably matched unrelated donors are often not identified for many children in need of BMT. And even where BMT is possible, treatment is complex and arduous and associated with significant mortality and morbidity. The issues raised when either or both the donor and recipient are children and lack the capacity to make informed and rational decisions relating to BMT pose great challenges for all involved. This paper examines some of the ethical dilemmas that confront patients, families and medical practitioners when considering bone marrow transplantation in a child

Waste not, want not: new organ donation policy could save lives

Australia has never had a great deceased organ donor rate – and it fell last year. But proposed guidelines from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) could change how donor organs are obtained and allocated for the better. DonateLife Australia, the government body responsible for organ donation and transplantation, has just announced there were 16.1 deceased organ donors per million people in Australia in 2014. This represents a 5% decline from 2013 and maintains Australia’s deceased organ donor rate in the bottom half of OECD countries. It’s important to note, though, that the 2013 rate was the highest ever recorded. More people in this country die waiting for organ transplants than in many other developed countries, but it’s not all bad news: Australia has a long and successful history in organ transplantation. Outcomes following organ transplantation are world leading – more than 90% of patients who receive a kidney, heart, heart-lung or liver transplant are alive a year later. And more than 90% of people who receive a transplant have normal function of their new organ. The number of organs retrieved from each deceased donor is also higher than in many countries