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American surgeons announced to the world that they successfully performed a penis transplant for the first time in the United States. In Poland it would be rather impossible. Not because of the transplantologists, because we have great ones. The Polish law simply assumes that it is… unethical.
In a Boston hospital in mid-May this year. a man whose penis was removed due to cancer has successfully undergone a transplant of this organ. Thomas Manning, 64, is not the first man to live with a donor transplant. Such an operation took place in 2014 in South Africa. The operated 21-year-old lost his penis as a result of complications after circumcision. American doctors are getting ready for the next treatments, especially since many war veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq are waiting in line.
Do Poles have a chance for such a transplant?
Pursuant to the Act on the collection, storage and transplantation of cells, tissues and organs, which states that the provisions contained therein do not apply to: “harvesting, transplanting reproductive cells, gonads, embryonic and fetal tissues and reproductive organs or their parts”, transplant penis or uterus in Poland could be problematic. Director of Poltransplan, coordinating all transplants in Poland, prof. Roman Danielewicz says that genital transplantation, apart from legal reservations, may also raise ethical doubts. If the uterus were to come from a living donor, it seems unethical to expose him to a risky organ donation operation that would not save anyone’s life. These are very complicated procedures. Another moral problem is the risk of losing the life or health of recipients when new organs are implanted. Also, conceiving a child while taking medication to prevent transplant rejection makes it an increased risk pregnancy.
Does Polish law prohibit penis transplantation?
According to prof. Danielewicz, the lack of regulations in this regard may constitute a legal obstacle. – The operation would be possible as part of a medical experiment after obtaining the consent of the Bioethics Committee – he emphasizes. Marek Balicki, who was the minister of health at the time of the creation of this law, says that the intention of the legislators was not to prohibit the transplantation of these organs, but to create a legal framework regulating transplantation in order to save life and health. Since genital transplantation does not directly save health and life and may raise ethical objections, it was excluded from this law. However, no other company has been established since then that would regulate these issues. Failure to regulate the transplantation of this type of organs, however, does not automatically mean that they are prohibited. After all, in vitro fertilization was performed in Poland, although for a long time no law regulated it. Besides, the penis is not just a sexual organ.
What do urologists say?
When asked whether the penis is a sexual or urological organ, urologist Dr. Jan Karol Wolski from the Oncology Center in Warsaw replies with both. In his opinion, penis transplantation would be possible in Poland. However, he points out that the amputation of this organ for medical reasons is rare. – Most often at the stage of cancer when the survival rate of patients is not high. Of course, a patient who has a chance to live for 5 years could have a penis transplant, but these are still high-risk operations that do not guarantee the proper functioning of the organ – he explains. The loss of male genitalia most often occurs as a result of an accident, a fight or self-mutilation. A few years ago, the American media circulated about the unfortunate end of a marital quarrel, when Mrs. Rabbit deprived her husband of his birth using a kitchen knife. The man who was sewed on bragged about appearing in pornographic films. But such a film can hardly be considered medical evidence that the operation was successful. – If, however, the technique of transplantation of this organ could be mastered so that the transplanted organ would function properly, such a procedure should be available – says Dr. Wolski.
What is the position of the Catholic Church?
Father Stanisław Warzeszak, a former national minister of health care, explains that the Church’s teaching does not forbid penis or uterine transplantation. Transplantation of ovaries or testes, i.e. organs responsible for the formation of reproductive cells, which are the carriers of genetic identity, is considered unethical. Therefore, the Church takes the position that it is forbidden to transplant the sex glands and the brain, which are related to the personality and individuality of a person. Father Warzeszak adds that the Orthodox Church forbids even heart transplantation, because it believes that it is also the seat of identity. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, approved on October 11, 1992 by John Paul II, it was written that organ transplantation “is morally unacceptable unless the donor or authorized persons have given their express consent. On the other hand, it is consistent with the moral law and may deserve recognition if the physical and mental threats and risks borne by the donor are proportional to the desired good in the recipient ”. These general principles were spelled out in the Charter of Healthcare Workers, issued by the Pontifical Council for Healthcare Ministers in 1994. There we read that “the brains and the sex glands must be excluded from transplants; what determines the personal identity and human procreation ”.
Polish doctors can sew a cut genital
In Poland, replantations of the penis have already been performed, i.e. sewing the cut penis onto its owner. In 1999, it was done for the first time in a 22-year-old man at the Urology Clinic of the Teaching Hospital of the Medical University in Białystok. The accident happened in one of the farms near Sejny (Podlaskie Voivodeship), when a man cut off his member with a knife while doing farm work. The doctors from the emergency room secured the cut-off fragment of the penis with a transport dressing. Five hours later, the injured person was on the operating table of the clinic in Białystok. In 2007, doctors from Krakow sewed the penis on to a XNUMX-year-old who, for unknown reasons, cut it off himself. The resident of Sucha Beskidzka was transported to the Krakow hospital within two hours. For transport, the organ was secured in the hospital in Sucha Beskidzka by injecting heparin into blood vessels (preventing blood clotting) and placing it on ice.