Faculty Bibliography

Both adult women and prepubertal girls facing cancer treatment may have the option to harvest and cryopreserve ovarian tissue. If they have successful therapy for their disease, the tissue may be autotransplanted back into the woman's body or follicles may be harvested and matured in vitro. These techniques all remain experimental, however, and should be performed only by specialized centers that can provide a multidisciplinary team. The procedures should be done under approval from an Institutional Review Board with proper assurance of informed consent. Although the costs for research could be assessed to patients if no research funds are available, clinical fees should not be charged at this stage in the development of these technologies. Consideration should be given to the protection of minors by ensuring parental informed consent and child assent whenever possible. Disposition of cryopreserved gonadal tissue in the event of the participant's death should be formally designated. A registry should be established to follow the health of participants and their eventual offspring.

BACKGROUND TO THE DEBATE: A variety of biomedical technologies are being developed that can be used for purposes other than treating disease. Such "enhancement technologies" can be used to improve our appearance and regulate our emotions, with the goal of feeling "better than well." While these technologies can help people adapt to their rapidly changing lifestyles, their use raises important ethical issues.

Recently, something happened that threatens the integrity of the organ transplant system. Todd Krampitz, a 32 year-old Houston man, decided he should not have to wait. He knew cancer was destroying his liver. He and his wife mounted a media campaign asking the nation to give him an organ. He was not encouraging people to donate their organs. He wanted them to donate to Todd Krampitz. Todd Krampitz cut in line

It is making over its state Medicaid program known as TennCare. If this program gets implemented, many of the poor, elderly, children and disabled in Tennessee who rely on Medicaid will be told simply to get over it. And other hard-pressed states may well follow suit