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Transplantation of human cells, tissues or organs saves many lives and restores essential functions where no alternatives of comparable effectiveness exist.
Transplants may consist of :
The person's own tissues
Tissues from an identical twin, whose genes exactly match those of the person
Tissues from someone whose genes do not exactly match those of the person
Rarely, tissues from a different species (such as a pig)
In 50 years, transplantation has become a successful worldwide practice. However, there are large differences between countries in access to suitable transplantation and in the level of safety, quality, efficacy of donation and transplantation of human cells, tissues and organs. The ethical aspects of transplantation are at the forefront. In particular, the unmet patients’ needs and the shortage of transplants lead to the temptation of trafficking in human body components for transplantation.
Transplantation is a procedure that is done to replace one of your organs with a healthy one from someone else. The surgery is only one part of a complex, long-term process.
Some procedures, such as hand or face transplantation, may greatly improve a person's quality of life but are not done to save a life. These procedures have most of the same risks as organ transplantation. They are highly specialized and done infrequently but are no longer considered experimental.
