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Calculating The Value Of Human Tissue Donation

The story of how Chris Truitt went from being a tissue industry insider to an industry skeptic starts with a family tragedy.

In 1999, his 2-year-old daughter, Alyssa, died of a sudden health complication. Truitt and his wife, Holly, donated their daughter's organs and tissue, which saved the life of another young girl, Kaylin Arrowood.

The Truitts became close friends with Kaylin's family and then advocates together, telling others to donate. That led to a career change for Truitt, who took a job on the tissue side of the business for the organ bank in Madison, Wis., where he lived.

Most people are familiar with organ donation, especially as it's portrayed…

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Articles of Interest

At the Printer, Living Tissue

Someday, perhaps, printers will revolutionize the world of medicine, churning out hearts, livers and other organs to ease transplantation shortages.

How Old Is Too Old To Have a Baby?

On the heels of rampant debate over the tension between work and parenthood, fertility researchers in Italy are adding a new dimension to this balancing act. Thanks to a promising fertility-preservation procedure now eight years in the making, women may soon be able to postpone menopause—indefinitely—by freezing their ovarian tissue and transplanting it later in life.

The Seamy Side Of The Human Tissue Business

The human tissue industry has created medical advances for millions of Americans. Tissue taken from cadavers is turned into medical products for the living. A tendon can be used to repair a torn ACL. Veins are used in heart bypass operations. Bone can be turned into plates and screws. They look like something you'd find in a hardware store, but these get used to mend a broken leg. It's a $1 billion-a-year industry that attracts the altruistic, but sometimes the greedy.

Tissue Donation

Donated tissue such as skin, bone, and heart valves can dramatically improve the quality of life for recipients, and help save lives. One tissue donor can heal the lives of more than 75 people.

Resources

American Association of Tissue Banks

The AATB is dedicated to ensuring that human tissues intended for transplantation are safe and free of infectious disease, of uniform high quality, and available in quantities sufficient to meet national needs.

WHO

Human cells and tissues for transplantation represent a special class of basic essential healthcare products, as well as being the potential starting material for much more complex biotechnology products in the future.