Speaker Biography

Felix Cantarovich

Argentine Catholic University, Argentina

Title: Serious health crisis to be resolved: The organ shortage

Biography:

Félix Cantarovich is an associate professor of Medical Sciences Buenos Aires at Catholic University Argentina. He is a Professor of Nephrology at University Lyon France. He also serves as a Professor and Director Course of Transplantology at Catholic University Argentine. He was a Former Chief Nephrology at Dialysis Transplantation Central Hospital Cosme Argerich Buenos Aires. He was a Consultant of Transplantation and Intensive Care at Hôpital Necker in Paris, France. He also served as a Councillor and Chairman of Educational Committee International Society Organ Sharing. He was a Chairman of Scientific Committee International Congress Transplantation, 2002. He was a Secretary at Latin American and Caribbean Transplantation Society. He is also a President of Argentine Transplantation Society.

Abstract:

Organ Transplantation benefits society, changing death on life. Evidence suggests that transplantation medicine might be a health guarantee for society. However, organ shortage limits this possibility. The progress of transplantation medicine has generated the need for novel methods and government support to implement, without restriction, this society’s benefit. This advance in medical practice should lead to new health programs that should be different from those currently offered. The transformation of death into life, which is what organ transplants symbolize, requires the end of a human being. Knowledge and acceptance of an unexpected metaphor, “transforming death into life”, should be acknowledged by health decision makers and understood by the people. An increasing number of patients are unjustly dying each year while waiting for a donated organ.

This reality evidences that society’s response to donation is still inadequate and that the organ shortage dilemma is still present. In the analysis of the causes of this social behaviour towards donation, it is rational to consider that social education programmes, permanently structured under the slogan "donation is a gift of life", have not been successful in changing people’s feelings towards organ donation. It should be noted that fear of death, mutilation, distrust of medical teams, and religious uncertainty, currently suggested as the main barriers to donation, have never been considered in the evaluation of current educational methodologies. People's acknowledgement of slogans such as “throughout our lives we are all potential recipients of organs and tissues”; “the body after death is a unique source of health for all”, and the catchphrase “sharing the donated organs could be a social agreement” that could potentially be useful when developing new criteria to structure organ donation social education. Finally, curricular organ donation education of young people might be an important contribution to a solution to this critical problem.