Alexander M. Capron is a University Professor at the University of Southern California, where he occupies the Scott H. Bice Chair in Healthcare Law, Policy and Ethics at the Gould School of Law, is a Professor of Medicine and Law at the Keck School of Medicine, and co-directs the Pacific Center for Health Policy and Ethics. He previously taught at Yale, Georgetown, and the University of Pennsylvania, and was Director of Ethics, Trade, Human Rights and Health Law at the World Health Organization (2002-06), where he co-lead the process of revising the 1991 Guiding Principles on Organ Transplantation, which included bringing The Transplantation Society (TTS) into official relations with WHO. He was a member of the steering committee for the summit meeting in Istanbul in 2008 where the declaration on organ trafficking and transplant tourism was drafted and he served on the group responsible for editing and publishing that document. Professor Capron was a founding member of the Board of Councilors of the Declaration of Istanbul Custodian Group and a co-leader of the two-year process that produced the 2018 edition of the Declaration.

• A new edition of the Declaration of Istanbul: updated guidance to combat organ trafficking and transplant tourism worldwide
• Strengthening Global Efforts to Combat Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism: Implications of the 2018 Edition of the Declaration of Istanbul
• The Declaration of Istanbul on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism (2018 Edition)

Kristof Van Assche LLM, Ph.D. is a research professor of health law at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. He obtained a Ph.D. in philosophy from Ghent University and a Ph.D. in law from the Free University of Brussels (VUB), focusing on the legal and ethical aspects of the commodification, including the commercialisation, of human body material in the context of organ transfer and biobank research.

From April 2012 to March 2014, he was project manager at the Council of Europe’s Bioethics Division (Strasbourg, France), entrusted with the re-examination of Recommendation Rec(2006)4, which resulted in the adoption of Recommendation CM/Rec(2016)6 on Research on Biological Materials of Human Origin. In addition, as part of the Secretariat of the Council of Europe’s Committee on Bioethics, he participated in the activities of that Committee, including in the field of transplantation.

In December 2015, he joined the University of Antwerp as a research professor of health law and kinship studies. He lectures in philosophy of law and does research on the legal and ethical aspects of organ transplantation, organ trafficking, biobanking, surrogacy, euthanasia, abortion, gene editing, involuntary treatment, and neurotechnology.

He is a member of the Declaration of Istanbul Custodian Group, a member of the Ethics Committee of The Transplantation Society, a member of the WHO Task Force on Donation and Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues, and a member of the working groups on Living Organ Donation, Legal Boundaries, and Public Issues of the European Platform on Ethical, Legal and Psychosocial Aspects of organ Transplantation (ELPAT).

He was a member of the working group entrusted with the preparation of the Belgian law on trafficking in human organs, adopted on 25 April 2019, and recently also prepared an Expert Memorandum on Organ Transplant Tourism for the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, available at http://www.assembly.coe.int/LifeRay/SOC/Pdf/DocsAndDecs/2018/AS-SOC-INF-2018-07-EN.pdf, as well as the Handbook for parliamentarians on the Council of Europe Convention against Trafficking in Human Organs, available at http://www.assembly.coe.int/LifeRay/SOC/Pdf/DocsAndDecs/STCE216-Handbook-EN.pdf.

Maryn Reyneke is a Research Associate at the Centre for Biomedical Ethics and Law at KU Leuven, Belgium. After graduating with a degree in Nursing Science from the North-West University (Potchefstroom, South Africa), she practiced as a Registered Nurse with a Critical Care Nursing specialization at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town. She then practiced as a Transplant Coordinator at Netcare Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital and Groote Schuur Hospital under the leadership of Prof Elmi Muller. Maryn joined the Declaration of Istanbul Custodian Group in 2017, working alongside world-leading medical, ethical, and law experts on the challenges of organ trafficking and transplant tourism. Most recently Maryn obtained an Advanced Masters in Bioethics from KU Leuven, graduating Magna Cum Laude.

• World Health Organization: WHO Guiding Principles on Human Cell, Tissue and Organ Transplantation, 2010
• World Medical Association: WMA Statement on Organ and Tissue Donation, 2012/2017
• United Nations. Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, 2000
• Council of Europe (at the European regional level): Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine: Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, 1992,
• Additional Protocol to the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine concerning Transplantation of Organs and Tissues of Human Origin, 2002
• Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings, 2005
• Council of Europe Convention against Trafficking in Human Organs, 2015
• The Ethics Committee of the Transplantation Society. The Ethics Statement of the Vancouver Forum on the Live Lung, Liver, Pancreas, and Intestine Donor, Transplantation, 2006; 81(10), 1386-1387
• The Ethics Committee of the Transplantation Society. The Consensus Statement of the Amsterdam Forum on the Care of the Live Kidney Donor, Transplantation, 2004; 78(4), 491-492,

Dr. Elmi Muller is a transplant surgeon from South Africa and the head of the transplantation service at Groote Schuur Hospital. Her research is in HIV positive transplantation: the “HIV positive to positive” transplant programme she started at in 2008 changed the life of many socioeconomically disadvantaged people. Currently she is past-president of the South African Transplantation Society and president-elect of The Transplantation Society (TTS). She received the Checkers-Shoprite Women of the Year award in 2011 and was featured in The Lancet in 2012 under the title: ‘Elmi Muller; bending rules, changing guidelines, making history.’ Dr Muller has experience in both tertiary academic medicine as well as private practice and has been organizing projects both locally in South Africa as well as internationally. She had been a faculty member/advisor for several World Health Organization workshops and has significant experience in health management in the field of transplantation. She has collaborated with many international leaders and is currently involved in research collaboration projects at the University of Cape Town, Hopkins University (USA) and Lund University (Sweden). Dr Muller does clinical work in the field of transplantation and vascular access.

Medical doctor, specialist in Nephrology. PhD in internal medicine. She joined the Organización Nacional de Trasplantes (ONT) in November 2006 and became its Director General in May 2017. ONT is the national authority responsible for the oversight, coordination and organization of the donation and clinical use of organs, tissues and cells in Spain. Immediate past chair of the Committee of

Transplantation of the Council of Europe (CD-P-TO), president of the Iberoamerican Network/Council on Donation and transplantation (RCIDT) and member of the WHO Task Force to promote ethical practices in the donation and transplantation of organs, tissues and cells.

Past chair of the European Donation and Transplant Coordination Organization (EDTCO), past councillor of The Transplantation Society (TTS) and member of its Ethics Committee, and past chair of the Declaration of Istanbul Custodian Group on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism. She has more than 120 publications in scientific journals and book chapters.

• Organ Donation and Transplantation in Central America
• Current State and Challenges for Organ Donation and Transplantation in Mexico
• TRASPLANTE Y COMERCIO DE ORGANOS EN PERÚ (Spanish)
• La cultura de la denuncia en la prevención del tráfico de órganos en la geografía nacional (Spanish)
• New York Times - Transplant Brokers in Israel Lure Desperate Kidney Patients to Costa Rica

John S. Gill MD, MS, FRCPC, Fellow of American Society of Transplantation

John Gill is Professor of Medicine with Tenure at the University of British Columbia, Division of Nephrology, Saint Paul’s Hospital.

John completed his medical training in 2000 (BSc. 1990 UBC, MD 1995 UBC, Internal Medicine 1998 Western University, Nephrology 2000 UBC) and completed a Masters Degree in clinical care research at Tufts University, Boston (2002) before joining the Division of Nephrology at UBC in July, 2002 with a cross appointment in the Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcomes Sciences (CHEOS).

John is an active researcher whose diverse interests include clinical outcomes in kidney transplantation, access to care, clinical trials, health services research and research ethics. He has supervised 20 Masters and PhD candidates. John has published over 200 peer reviewed manuscripts and has held peer reviewed research support throughout his career. He currently holds a Foundation Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and is a past recipient of the American Society of Transplantation Established Clinical Investigator Award.

John is President Elect of the American Society of Transplantation, Consulting Editor of the American Journal of Transplantation, Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Society and Member of the Declaration of Istanbul Custodial Group. He serves on several national committees related to organ donation and transplantation in Canada.

• International travel by Australians for overseas transplantation