Spain’s first face transplant patient – the first anywhere to get a new tongue and jaw – has been so pleased by his new appearance that he smiled, the Associated Press reported over the weekend. The 43-year-old patient, who underwent the surgery Aug. 18 at La Fe hospital in the eastern city of Valencia, may [Sign in to read the full article...]

In continuing publicity about the recent arrest of Brooklyn-based kidney matchmaker Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, some experts tell the news media that wealthy New Yorkers without a donor but with the right connections can indeed purchase a kidney. “I have met many, many people who have told me in confidence that they have bought a kidney. [Sign in to read the full article...]

Israel has expressed outrage about a Swedish newspaper article from last week that called for an investigation into claims that Israeli soldiers may have procured organs from dead Palestinians, CNN reports. “The article was a shocking piece of blatant racism,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told CNN on Aug. 19. “This kind of medieval [Sign in to read the full article...]

Prosecutors in South Korea on Monday demanded a four-year prison term for scientist Hwang Woo-Suk, disgraced in a cloning scandal that shook the international scientific community and led to his trial on fraud and other charges, the Associated Press reports.   Hwang was fired from the prestigious Seoul National University after purported breakthroughs — including [Sign in to read the full article...]

A British hospital that combined its bereavement and donation services saw a 40-fold increase in tissue donations, such as corneas, in just five years, according to research published in the August issue of the journal Anesthesia. “We decided to address the problem of low organ and tissue donation rates by amalgamating the two services and [Sign in to read the full article...]