title: Experimentation in organ transplants compared with clinical trials: ethical problems.
abstract: The origins of new techniques in transplant surgery vary widely. Frequently, new procedures are the result of small step-by-step departures from protocols already established in clinical practice; or they may be the result of radical innovation. Whatever their origin, experimental techniques in transplant surgery do not follow the route of randomised clinical trials; nor are they subject to the same procedures of review by an ethics committee. The present paper discusses some of the ethical implications of this situation.
authors.affiliation: Italian National Institute of Health, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Petrini
mesh_terms: D026688:Bioethical Issues; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000941:ethics*; D006801:Humans; D016377:Organ Transplantation / Q000941:ethics*; D036302:Therapeutic Human Experimentation / Q000941:ethics*