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April
1, 2003
La Salle University Honors Pioneering Transplant Surgeon with 2003
Holroyd Award; Holroyd Lecture Given by Leading Bioethicist
Aaron
D. Bannett, M.D. |
Aaron
D. Bannett, M.D., a pioneer in organ transplant surgery, received
the 2003 Holroyd Award from La Salle University, his alma mater,
on Friday, March 28. The award given annually to a graduate
who makes a significant contribution to medicine.
A
1946 graduate of Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson
University School of Medicine, Dr. Bannett was one of the
first physicians in Philadelphia to perform liver and pancreas
transplants more than 35 years ago.
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One of
his most significant contributions was developing procedures to perform
transplants whose blood type didn't match the donor (this was the
cause of a recent fatality in North Carolina). After retiring from
surgical practice at Albert Einstein Medical Center, he traveled the
world teaching surgery.
He
was a founder of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, and
also President and founder of the Delaware Valley Transplant Program
(now called the Gift of Life Donor Program), a regional organization
dealing with kidney transplants.
In
1966, Dr. Bannett was named Director of the Organ Transplant Program
at Albert Einstein Medical Center, a post he held until 1989. In
1984 he founded The Bannett Transplant Institute in Philadelphia.
At
79, Dr. Bannett still takes an active interest in medicine: he recently
completed a study for the Delaware Valley Organ Bank on the possibility
of transplanting animal organs in humans. For the past three years,
he has been a volunteer faculty member at Jefferson Medical College,
teaching first-year medical students once a week.
Also
on March 28, the 2003 Holroyd Lecture was given by Edmund Pellegrino,
M.D., one of the nation's leading researchers in bioethics, who
discussed "Medical Ethics in an Era of Moral Pluralism."
The lecture is given annually about a timely issue in medicine.
Dr.
Pellegrino was graduated from St. John's University and New York
University's School of Medicine. He is the author, co-author or
editor of 24 books, many dealing with the philosophical and humanistic
aspects of practicing medicine. He has received 45 honorary doctoral
degrees.
From
1978 until 1982 he was President and Professor of Philosophy and
Biology of The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
Since 1983, he has been affiliated
with the Georgetown University School of Medicine, where he currently
is Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Medical Ethics at the school's
Center for Clinical Bioethics, a center that he founded.
The
award and lecture are named after Dr. Roland Holroyd (1986-1985),
a biology teacher who taught at La Salle from1920 until his retirement
in 1973, when he became the first La Salle professor to be granted
the title of "emeritus." La Salle's science building was
dedicated as the Roland Holroyd Science Center.
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