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The article discusses a study on the declaration, determination, and concept of death in the context of organ donation after circulatory determination of death (DCDD), conducted by Kathleen N. Fenton and Anne Dalle Ave, published in the journal "The American Journal of Bioethics." It examines the ethical and practical implications of declaring death before the irreversible cessation of respiratory and circulatory functions, particularly in DCDD programs.

Partial heart transplantation, also known as living valve implantation, has the potential to revolutionize neonatal heart surgery and pediatric heart transplantation. This procedure offers a safer and more durable alternative to other valve operations for infants with valvular heart disease. It is technically similar to implanting a homograft, making it familiar to congenital heart surgeons. While there are ethical considerations, such as the potential impact on the heart transplant waiting list, partial heart transplantation could also address racial and ethnic disparities in outcomes. Further research is needed to determine the best candidates for the procedure and the optimal immunosuppressive needs. Overall, partial heart transplantation shows promise in improving the care of these complex patients. [Extracted from the article]

Organ‐on‐chips are three‐dimensional microdevices that emulate the structure, functionality, and behavior of specific tissues or organs using human cells. Combining organoids with microfabricated fluidic channels and microelectronics, these systems offer a promising platform for studying disease mechanisms, drug responses, and tissue performance. By replicating the in vivo microenvironment, these devices can recreate complex cell interactions in controlled conditions and facilitate research in various fields, including drug toxicity and efficacy studies, biochemical analysis, and disease pathogenesis. Integrating human induced pluripotent stem cells further enhances their applicability, thereby enabling patient‐specific disease modeling for precision medicine. Although challenges like economy‐of‐scale, multichip integration, and regulatory compliance exist, advances in this modular technology show promise for lowering drug development costs, improving reproducibility, and reducing the reliance on animal testing. The ethical landscape surrounding organ‐on‐chip usage presents both benefits and concerns. While these chips offer an alternative to animal testing and potential cost savings, they raise ethical considerations related to community engagement, informed consent, and the need for standardized guidelines. Ensuring public acceptance and involvement in decision‐making is vital to address misinformation and mistrust. Furthermore, personalized medicine models using patient‐derived cells demand careful consideration of potential ethical dilemmas, such as modeling physiological functions of fetuses or brains and determining the extent of protection for these models. To achieve the full potential of organ‐on‐a‐chip models, collaboration between scientists, ethicists, and regulators is essential to fulfil the promise of transforming drug development, advancing personalized medicine, and contributing to a more ethical and efficient biomedical research landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A personal narrative is presented which explores the author's experience of treating her mother's recurrent gastric adenocarcinoma as a cardiothoracic surgeon in the family.

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the article "High-risk cardiac surgery in patients with intravenous drug abuse and or active hepatitis C or HIV infection: an ethical discussion of six cases" by L. S. Gansera, E. Eszlari, O. Deutsch, W. B. Eichinger and B. Gansera.

A letter to the editor is presented in response to the article "Cardiac Surgery Capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa: Quo Vadis?' by Charles Yankah and colleagues in the previous issue.