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

Submitted by: David Jones on Oct 08, 2009 at 9:08 pm Tagged with: Charleston, Medical Ethics, Organ Shortage, Organ Transplants Source: Rutland Institute for Ethics/Clemson University/South Carolina Clinical and Translational Research Institute

A conference sponsored by Clemson University and the Medical University of South Carolina will bring together scholars, medical professionals and others interested in tackling some of the key issues and causes surrounding a shortage of transplant organs.

The conference, “Resolving the Shortage of Organs for Transplantation: Ethics, Science and Technology,” is 10 a.m.- to 6 p.m., Friday, Nov. 20, at MUSC’s College of Health Professions in Charleston.

The conference is organized by Clemson’s Rutland Institute for Ethics and hosted by MUSC’s Institute of Human Values in Health Care. The other two planning partners are the South Carolina Bioengineering Alliance and Cell and Tissue Systems, Inc.

The event will provide up-to-date information and research, and give participants a voice in a multi-disciplinary dialogue. Participants will develop an ethically sound course of action for resolving the shortage of organs for transplantation through state-of-the-art applications of science and technology. A writing committee will prepare a white paper or other publication after the conference.

Panelists include:
• Kelvin Brockbank, Ph.D., president and chief science officer of Cell and Tissue Systems, Inc. A visiting faculty member at Georgia Tech, he is inventor of the storage and transportation methods used for most of the cryopreserved allograft heat valves, blood vessels, ligaments and meniscal tissues implanted in the United States.
• Dr. Richard N. Pierson III, professor of surgery, University of Maryland, and director of the Surgical Care Clinical Center, VA Maryland Health Care System. He is the immediate past president of the international Xenotransplantation Association.
• Dr. Robert Sade, professor of surgery and director of the Institute of Human Values in Health Care at the Medial University of South Carolina and medical director of LifePoint, Inc. He chairs the Ethics Committee of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and the Standards and Ethics Committee of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons.
• Richard Swaja, professor and director of the South Carolina Bioengineering Alliance, CoEE Endowed Chair in Regenerative Medicine at MUSC. He is professor and associate chair of bioengineering at Clemson University; director of the Clemson–MUSC Joint Bioengineering Program; and he holds professorships in cell biology and anatomy at MUSC and in chemical engineering at the University of South Carolina.
• Stephen P. Williams, special counsel, with Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd, P.A., in Greenville. Recognized in The Best Lawyers in America–Healthcare Law, he is attorney to the state’s largest tertiary-care hospital, Greenville Hospital System. Williams has more than a decade of experience as senior vice president and general counsel to the South Carolina Medical Association.

The event facilitator is Daniel E. Wueste, associate professor of philosophy and director of the Rutland Institute for Ethics at Clemson University.

The endeavor is realized through the generosity and support of its sponsors: Title sponsor, the SCTR (South Carolina Clinical and Translational Research Institute); Leadership Circle sponsors SC Hospital Association’s Every Patient Counts Program and Organ Recovery Systems; and Exhibitor sponsor LifePoint, Inc.

To register for this event, visit www.clemson.edu/ethics/events/transplants.php

The registration fee is $20 and lunch is included.