Resolving the Shortage of Organs for Transplantation: Ethics, Science and Technology

The conference took place on November 20th in the MUSC College of Health Professions state of the art facility (the historic renovated High School of Charleston), thanks to the efforts of planning committee member, Dr. Robert Sade. One hundred and thirty-five invitations were sent and a total of forty-four attended the conference. Attendees represented ten organizations and nine institutions of higher education and came from disciplines as diverse as: health law, ethics, transplant medicine and surgery, regenerative research, nursing, organ procurement organization administration, theology, philosophy, university administration, Ph.D. Programs, and related non-profit administration.

The day began with presentations from five speakers expert in the areas of organ donation, xenotransplantation, regenerative medicine and health law—providing baseline information. Then, utilizing a work team approach, the attendees were divided into three groups, each containing one to two moderators and three graduate student rapporteurs, who took notes and completed the team’s PowerPoint for the Plenary Session. The teams were asked to focus on the following questions to generate a set of recommendations.

Considering the need to resolve the shortage of organs for transplantation and human organ donation, xenotransplantation, and regenerative approaches:

• What are the most pressing and near-term legal and ethical issues?
• What are the critical health care and economic issues?
• What are the key regulatory and political challenges?

They were then asked to create a set of "Recommendations for Action":

Considering each of the three organ supply approaches—donation, xenotransplantation, and regenerative medicine—what actions should be taken by government, industry, health care organizations, donor agencies, and relevant science and technology organizations to deal with the issues and challenges?

After the group work was completed the participants regrouped for discussion and worked to create a set of consensus recommendations. A writing committee has put together a report of the proceedings of the meeting to be submitted to The Journal of the South Carolina Medical Association. A draft has been sent to the breakout group moderators for additions, corrections and suggestions. A penultimate draft will be circulated to all attendees for review and comment before it is submitted for publication.

This collaborative effort developed from an idea: that partnering with the MUSC Institute of Human Values and Health Care might be a way to create a win-win event that provided some exposure for the Rutland Institute for Ethics in the Charleston area. The planning committee grew to include representatives of the SC Bioengineering Alliance and Cell and Tissue Systems, Inc. All share a concern for the complexity of the problem and a desire to identify ethically sound solutions that can be communicated/proposed for implementation, with the goal of reducing the gap between the supply and need for transplantable organs—a problem that causes 6,000-7,000 deaths each year.