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AMA delegates tackle range of ethics topics, including xenotransplantation, genetics privacy

AMA delegates discuss ethical standards for new and old issues that physicians encounter.

By Tanya Albert, amednews staff. Jan. 1/8, 2001.

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Orlando, Fla. -- From transplanting animal organs into humans to guarding a patient's genetic information, the AMA House of Delegates tackled ethical issues brought on by cutting-edge medical technology.

And delegates sought to give more guidance on issues that have been a part of the medical community for years, including the ethics of handling conflicts of interest in clinical trials and performing invasive procedures on the newly deceased.

Delegates to December's Interim Meeting voted to accept a Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs report recommending that patients receiving animal organs or tissues be monitored for the rest of their lives, even if the organ is eventually removed.

"Many of the issues surrounding animal organs are similar to any other transplant, including allocation and public education," said CEJA member Robert Sade, MD, a cardiothoracic surgeon in Charleston, S.C. "But there are unique problems."

Xenotransplantation offers a way to solve organ shortages that have thousands of people waiting for transplants. But one of the risks is that humans could be exposed to new infectious diseases currently found in animals but unknown to humans.

HIV is perhaps an example of disease transmission from animals to humans, said Michael A. Williams, MD, neurologist at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and chair of the AMA Council on Scientific Affairs.

The CEJA report also recommended that children and incompetent adults not be allowed to participate in clinical trials unless they are terminally ill and there are no other treatment options. [...]