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American Morning

Life Saving Gift From Doctor to Patient

Aired April 28, 2003 - 08:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: A life saving gift from a doctor to one of her patients. It's believed to be the first of the kind in the United States. But when the doctor, Susan Hou, gave one of her kidneys to a patient, it also raised ethical questions about the doctor-patient relationship and the organ donation process.
Paging Dr. Sanjay Gupta, he's at CNN Center in Atlanta for more on that story.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

Yes, it may be one of those historic moments in the worlds of transplantation, no question about it. People often think about transplantation, organs being transplanted. They think of people who are brain dead actually donating their organs to someone.

But over the years, transplantation has changed a lot. There is something called living, related organ transplants, which is when someone in the family can actually donate their organ as well to someone else in the family, if they're compatible a donor. Another, there is something living, nonrelated donors, if someone knows somebody, they may be a friend, and they find that they're a good potential match, and they donate their organs.

KAGAN: What's happened over the past several years, interestingly, is something stranger donations, people just donating one of their organs purely out of notions of altruism, and, Daryn, possibly, as you mentioned, a doctor actually donating a kidney to one of her patients.

The story is sort of interesting. It goes like this. Dr. Susan Hou. She is 56 years old. She is the medical director of Reno Clinic. That's the kidney clinic at Loyola University Medical Center. A woman walks into her office one day. She is 33 years old. Interestingly, she is about the same size. Dr. Ho is a very small woman. This woman is also a very small woman, the same size, who's suffering from significant kidney disease. She's 33, and the mother of two. Dr. Hou is evaluating her, notices that she is also a potentially compatible donor for this woman, and decided over a period of time that she's going to have the transplant coordinators ask if this woman would accept a kidney from her doctor.

In fact, she does. The operation is very successful. They are both doing well now recovering.

But if does raise some ethical questions, Daryn, as you mentioned. A lot of people looking at this, and saying certainly it is an altruistic thing. The doctor donated a kidney to her patient.

But what are the ethical issues? Dr. George Annas (ph) of Boston University had this to say, talking about blood donation, "if you think about it, blood is a renewable thing, it regenerates. When you go beyond blood though, it becomes a more interesting question as to whether or not it's a good thing. Art Caplan (ph) of the University of Pennsylvania, one of the ethicists over there, says he'd be nervous about letting doctors donate to their own patients; it might be better to donate to people who aren't their patients.

Both of them, Daryn, actually bringing up issues of, what is the doctor-patient relationship? Not only before the operation, but after. In this case, things went well. But if it hadn't, how would all sort of play out? A very interesting story, though, and we're going to sort of follow that along -- Daryn.

KAGAN: And then also, Sanjay, isn't it a reflection of what's even a bigger problem, and that is the lack of organs, and not enough people signing up to be organ donors in case something terrible happens to them, like a car accident?

GUPTA: That's absolutely right. You know, there is not enough organ donors out there. That's one of the points Dr. Susan Hou makes. She said, listen, if the 54,000 people out there did what I did, we wouldn't have the problem that we have today. She makes a good point, and certainly organ donation needs to go up. Although this particular situation, again, the doctor to the patient donation, raises some other ethical issues, which may or may not be the right way to go. Doctors have differing opinions on that.

KAGAN: All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. And just to review, since you usually operate on brains, don't go donating anything to your future patients, OK?

GUPTA: All right, good idea, good advice.

KAGAN: Very good. Dr. Sanjay Gupta in Atlanta.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired April 28, 2003 - 08:41   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: A life saving gift from a doctor to one of her patients. It's believed to be the first of the kind in the United States. But when the doctor, Susan Hou, gave one of her kidneys to a patient, it also raised ethical questions about the doctor-patient relationship and the organ donation process.
Paging Dr. Sanjay Gupta, he's at CNN Center in Atlanta for more on that story.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

Yes, it may be one of those historic moments in the worlds of transplantation, no question about it. People often think about transplantation, organs being transplanted. They think of people who are brain dead actually donating their organs to someone.

But over the years, transplantation has changed a lot. There is something called living, related organ transplants, which is when someone in the family can actually donate their organ as well to someone else in the family, if they're compatible a donor. Another, there is something living, nonrelated donors, if someone knows somebody, they may be a friend, and they find that they're a good potential match, and they donate their organs.

KAGAN: What's happened over the past several years, interestingly, is something stranger donations, people just donating one of their organs purely out of notions of altruism, and, Daryn, possibly, as you mentioned, a doctor actually donating a kidney to one of her patients.

The story is sort of interesting. It goes like this. Dr. Susan Hou. She is 56 years old. She is the medical director of Reno Clinic. That's the kidney clinic at Loyola University Medical Center. A woman walks into her office one day. She is 33 years old. Interestingly, she is about the same size. Dr. Ho is a very small woman. This woman is also a very small woman, the same size, who's suffering from significant kidney disease. She's 33, and the mother of two. Dr. Hou is evaluating her, notices that she is also a potentially compatible donor for this woman, and decided over a period of time that she's going to have the transplant coordinators ask if this woman would accept a kidney from her doctor.

In fact, she does. The operation is very successful. They are both doing well now recovering.

But if does raise some ethical questions, Daryn, as you mentioned. A lot of people looking at this, and saying certainly it is an altruistic thing. The doctor donated a kidney to her patient.

But what are the ethical issues? Dr. George Annas (ph) of Boston University had this to say, talking about blood donation, "if you think about it, blood is a renewable thing, it regenerates. When you go beyond blood though, it becomes a more interesting question as to whether or not it's a good thing. Art Caplan (ph) of the University of Pennsylvania, one of the ethicists over there, says he'd be nervous about letting doctors donate to their own patients; it might be better to donate to people who aren't their patients.

Both of them, Daryn, actually bringing up issues of, what is the doctor-patient relationship? Not only before the operation, but after. In this case, things went well. But if it hadn't, how would all sort of play out? A very interesting story, though, and we're going to sort of follow that along -- Daryn.

KAGAN: And then also, Sanjay, isn't it a reflection of what's even a bigger problem, and that is the lack of organs, and not enough people signing up to be organ donors in case something terrible happens to them, like a car accident?

GUPTA: That's absolutely right. You know, there is not enough organ donors out there. That's one of the points Dr. Susan Hou makes. She said, listen, if the 54,000 people out there did what I did, we wouldn't have the problem that we have today. She makes a good point, and certainly organ donation needs to go up. Although this particular situation, again, the doctor to the patient donation, raises some other ethical issues, which may or may not be the right way to go. Doctors have differing opinions on that.

KAGAN: All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. And just to review, since you usually operate on brains, don't go donating anything to your future patients, OK?

GUPTA: All right, good idea, good advice.

KAGAN: Very good. Dr. Sanjay Gupta in Atlanta.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com