When organ donation from living donors serves as the main source of organ procurement: a critical examination of the ethical and legal challenges to Turkey's recent efforts to overcome organ shortage.

Despite the fact that Turkey has implemented a number of legislative and regulatory efforts to increase cadaveric donations, live donors still serve as the main source of organ procurement in this country. To address this problem, Turkey's regulatory authorities have sought to increase the number of brain death declarations. A new regulation issued in 2012 repeats the criteria for brain death that were first issued in 1993. This paper argues that these efforts are far from adequate owing to a number of complicated, ethical, and legal challenges that must be addressed to increase cadaveric organ donations. After examining these factors, which are completely neglected in current policies, we conclude that Turkey needs a realistic ethically justifiable organ procurement policy that must be supported by a framework of patient rights to implement the concept of patient autonomy and respect for human dignity in health care services as the primary goal.

[The British Surgeon William Wittman's impression of Istanbul and its neighborhood's health problems surrounding at the beginning of 19th century]. / Ingiliz Cerrah William Wittman in 19.yy. Basinda Istanbul Cevresindeki Gözlemleri.

British surgeon William Wittman visited the Ottoman Empire between the years 1799 and 1802 as a member of the British Military Mission. The British Military Mission came to the Ottoman Territory in accordance with the alliance which was enacted between the Ottoman and British Empires after Napoleons' invasion of Egypt. William Wittman spent a year in Istanbul. Later on he went to Jaffa with the British Military Mission to join the Ottoman army. They traveled through El-Arish and Belbeis to Cairo with the army. During this time Wittman recorded the health problems and the diseases which were prevalent both in the Ottoman army and the British Military Mission. He also recorded the cases which he tried to cure. William Wittman appended three medical reports to his travel report. This article is on William Wittman's biography and his impressions of the Levant Chiflick in Istanbul; health problems, and diseases prevalent in Istanbul and its neighborhood during the period.