Woo Sang-hyun (R), head of W Hospital, raises the transplanted arm of Sohn Jin-wook during a press conference on the first anniversary of the successful transplant at the hospital in Daegu, 302 km southeast of Seoul, on Feb. 2, 2018. Woo performed the country’s first arm transplant a year ago. (Yonhap)
Could humans one day have pig organs and even wear pig skin? South Korean scientists are taking the first steps to make this one day possible:
South Korean scientists have successfully transplanted organs from a genetically modified pig to a monkey.
The Rural Development Administration said Wednesday that the monkey remains healthy for a record 51 days after receiving the heart and cornea of a pig named “Mideumi.”
The administration said the transplant was conducted on September 26th by a joint team from Konkuk University Medical Center and the National Institute of Animal Science, a research arm of the state-run agency.
On October 24th, Samsung Medical Center and Hallym University Medical Center jointly transplanted the pig’s skin to a monkey for research.
The pig, engineered by the administration in 2010 for xenotransplantation research, carries a gene that helps prevent transplant rejection from one species to another. [KBS World Radio]
Korea is the latest country to allow terminally ill patients to end treatment if they so desire:
The National Assembly on Friday passed the Death with Dignity Act, which allows certain life-sustaining medical treatments for terminally ill patients to be stopped. The act will take effect in January 2018.
The National Assembly convened both the Legislation and Judiciary Committee and a plenary session on Friday to vote on the bill. At the plenary session, 202 out of 203 lawmakers attending approved the bill, with one abstaining.
It has taken 19 years for the act to pass.
The issue was first brought up in 1997, after a doctor at SMG-SNU Boramae Medical Center was indicted on a charge of abetting homicide after allowing a terminally ill patient to be discharged.
According to the act, terminally ill patients or their family can make the decision to end four life-sustaining medical treatments – cardiopulmonary resuscitation, hemodialysis, anti-cancer treatment and artificial respiration – if the patients have no chance of being cured or recovering. Doctors will not be punished if they stop these four life-sustaining medical treatments if patients or their families request they be stopped. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read the rest at the link.
This is not an issue I was even aware of before, but I can easily see how someone could get in trouble for this without even knowing they were doing something illegal:
U.S. personnel in Japan and South Korea won’t get in trouble if they take prescription or over-the-counter medication off-base, even if the ingredients are prohibited under host-nation law, according to local national officials.
A U.S. English teacher, Carrie Russell, was arrested last month after officials discovered 180 Adderall pills that she had mailed to her new home in Nagoya, Japan. Russell’s mother earlier sent the pills — used to treat attention deficit disorder — to her daughter in South Korea, according to the Tribune News Service.
Adderall, which contains amphetamines, is illegal in Japan and South Korea. Ritalin, the other main drug used in the West to treat ADD, was banned in 2007 in Japan as officials cited widespread abuse.
Pseudoephedrine-based medications sold over-the-counter in the U.S. and at on-base commissaries are also controlled substances in Japan.
Warnings about the import of cold and flu medications with brand names such as Tylenol, Nyquil, Actifed, Sudafed, Advil, Dristan, Drixoral, Vicks and Lomotil are posted on Japanese consular websites. The cold and flu remedies contain narcotic or stimulant ingredients in excess of Japan’s standards, the websites state.
However, officials said U.S. military personnel won’t get in trouble if they take that type of medication off-base.
U.S. Forces Korea spokesman Andre Kok said by email that the Status of Forces Agreement there affords the U.S. the right to furnish medical support for troops, civilians and family members. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link.
