h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A598890

Taking a short break from the tennis related entries; here's one on a much more important subject.

Love to hear your thoughts!

Stay ,
WD

Very well laid out... I like it.

What should I say other that it's a superb entry

The sentence "There are additional problems...": delete one of the 'some's there

There were some hair-raising stories in the media about some locations in Turkey and/or Australia where people would be kidnapped and made kid donors without wanting to... could you confirm ?

again,

Bossel (Scout)

An urban legend that may have had it's roots in RL, but maybe not....

Yes I think so too, but who knows?

There was also a German film called 'Fleisch für Dr. Jackson' (flesh for Dr. Jackson) ... I won't elaborate

Excellent entry, Witty Ditty!

Have you left out a section on transplants from living donors? The brave relative donating a kidney is another good soap-opera scenario, but I don't see where it fits under your present headers. Do you have any idea what the actual numbers are for that kind of kidney donation?

Azara

Gosh; PR is hot today

Firstly; small changes;
>'some' has gone

I completely forgot about living donors! I'll add that asap; not sure about the figures for them though....thanks for reminding me!

And as for the kidnapping for organs; Caper Plip says it is in fact true; she read it in a book somewhere...not sure where, but she says its true...

Thanks for all the comments! Any more will be gratefully receieved!

Stay ,
WD

Right! Changes are...

>added a section on living donors

I'm afraid I don't know the rates for this sort of donation...sorry bout that!

Any more comments will be gratefully received!

Stay ,
WD

Of course I meant to write 'kidney' in posting 3

The meaning of footnote 4 isn't all to clear.

Donor passports.. perhaps worth a few words, or another entry?


again: superb entry!


Bossel (Scout)

Wow, that's a large extra section on living donors! It's very nice indeed - don't worry about the figures, it was only idle curiosity on my part, and the entry doesn't need them.
Well done!

Azara

Right, changes....

>footnote 4 done; omitted an 'of' there for no reason....

Just a small question; what are donor passports?

Thanks so much for the compliments; love more comments please!

Stay ,
WD

As per your "story" regarding the sister being coerced into donating her kidney. I don't know about elsewhere in the world, but in the US things are set up relatively well to prevent that kind of thing. Donors have to go through intense psychological screening in order to be allowed to donate, and this is one of the things they're looking for. If it's found that the would-be donor has either been coerced, or doesn't fully understand the process and risks, or has a seriously misguided motive for donating, then the donation isn't allowed to happen.

I would also object to your classification of transplant surgery as "routine". It may happen quite a bit, but I don't know of any doctor who would consider it a "routine" procedure.

Another point worth bringing up is that not all hospitals are equipped for transplant surgery - most hospitals in the US don't perform transplants at all, some only do a few specific organs, and some do it all. To be put on a transplant waiting list in the US, you first have to be decreed eligible by the transplant board at the hospital where you will have the operation. This eligibility can be affected by many factors (both medical and psychological), and is often a frustrating experience for patients and their families. Once a person is on the list, they may have to move to be closer to their hospital so that they could get there in time should an appropriate organ become available.

It may also be worthwhile to discuss in further detail the different types of criteria that are used to determine who should get which organs. This has been a pretty hot area of debate in many countries over the last few years.


Mikey

A-ha, we're entering the 'international transplantation rules' section now In Germany you can carry a 'Donor Pass(port)' around your neck or in your purse.

It states something along the lines of
'In case I get killed in an accident, please feel free to take out my (check from a list: liver/heart/....) and transplantate it to somebody who needs it more than I do, given my present condition'

Oh it was just a story; I did just make it up on the spot. The aspect about coersion was put down simply because the lecturer said that it was a real worry...but I do agree, the way I put it does make it sound like it happens a lot more often than it actually does...

I considered putting stuff about criteria for transplants down and then after thinking about it, didn't; I only wanted to outline the different types of transplants; which must be pretty universal, and not the criteria, which do vary from country to country. On saying that, it could be quite a nifty collaborative entry though.....

The donor pass(port) has it's equivilent in the UK; tis a donor card, and does exactly the same thing.

Thanks for all the comments; love to hear some more!

Stay ,
WD

Well - all I can say is...

This is just superb.

Can't fail to get into the edited guide.


I saw a documentary on transplantation history about 6 or 7 years ago on BBC2. Very interesting but not for the squeamish.

I remember they did an episode on the future of transplantation and they were interested in the idea of the so called 'body transplant'.

This was essentially changing your body for another - ie. keeping your head and nothing else.
Is this worth mentioning?
I must say I'm not generally anti animal experimentation but this episode almost had me with my head and stomach contents in the toilet as this is the source of all those experiments of dogs and monkeys with two heads. The programme pulled no punches with this. .

In the light of recent reports, I've put in a bit about the bone marrow/kidney transplant - what do you think?

Oh, I saw that programme too: I thought I was immune to the 'yuk factor', how wrong I was. They did sesm to show that if you transplant a monkey's head to another monkey's body, it will survive for 2 days...

Stay ,
WD

There's mixed tenses in the new paragraph - ie. Organs can now repair itself but apart from that

A fine entry. Definately destined for the edited guide.

Just two points:

1) You say that you share 50% of genetic material with a sibling and less with a parent. I think it's actually (definatively) 50% with each parent (1 of your copies of each chromo came from each parent) & (statistically) 25% with a sibling (depending how each set was created by cross-over during meiosis (sp?)).

2) I have heard of, but know little about, the first so-called "designer baby" where parents of a girl in need of transplant had a son by in ivf & genetic selection of tissue type for a good match. Do you know anything about this and if so, should it be included?

Otherwise, can't fault it -

Ugi

People share exactly 50% with each parent *and* an average 50% with a sibling. Mitochondrial chromosomes are not included in this, as they come solely from the mother -- so a child would share 100% with mother and siblings. (Actually, the 50% per parent is a theoretical thing - in actuality, it's a bit higher as the average husband and wife do have genes in common).

The reason siblings are better matches than parents is that *average* bit. Many siblings actually share more than 50% (although there are equally many who share less). It's not the overall number of genes shared, however, that's important, it's the matching between HLA (human leukocyte antigens) genotypes (these are the genes that predetermine which antibodies your body can make). Each individual has 6 HLA genes - 3 from Mom and 3 from Dad. Somebody who matches 5 or 6 HLA genotypes will be a much better donor match than someone who only matches 3. There was a time when donor matching was done based solely on HLA types and blood type, I believe, but now they use genes for other antigens as well.


Mikey

Yep. Fine one. But:

'However, it is very limited; and hence this type of transplantation is restricted to skin.'

NO NO NO. I had bone-chops transplanted from myself (cancer - ugly story - but all's fine now). Works fine with muscular-tissue and whole limbs too (Seen a guy who had his hand cut off, and his toes removed from the feet and transplanted to the arm, so now he can pick things up)

Bye,

HELL