Speaker Series - Larynx Transplants and Medical Ethics

Larynx Transplants and Medical Ethics

Presented by MCA Member Marshall Strome

Registration opens 9/19/25

The history of Medicine in so many ways was most influenced by those who challenged convention and had the leadership skills and chutzpah to do such. Transplanting a human Larynx for malignancy is still looked upon with negativity by the unenlightened.

For those with the vision to see what the latter can’t, and the drive to defy convention, patients with laryngeal cancer can choose to live a near normal life.

I will share the story of the difficulty and time it took to get approval for the first total laryngeal transplant that I performed in 1998. It stands today as the only organ transplant performed for the first time when immunosuppressants were required to prevent rejection and remain functional for 14 years.

Today it still remains ethically controversial to transplant a larynx for malignancy because the larynx is considered by some to be a non-vital organ. It begs the question as to whether a person with capacity has the right to choose quality of life verses the potential for a decrease in longevity. The human larynx is remarkable in its ability to project one’s humanism. Further, it is the guardian of the airway preventing aspiration and as such the potential for preventing chronic pulmonary pathology. Finally, in my paradigm the voice the larynx produces is the window to the soul.

Dr. Marshall Strome

Dr. Marshall Strome, M.D., M.S., F.A.C.S. is a board certified otolaryngologist with a special interest in head and neck cancer surgery. He has been chair of the Otolaryngology section of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Harvard Medical School followed by Professor and Chairman of Cleveland Clinic Head and Neck Institute. During his tenure,  it was recognized  as the number one program in the country by “US News and World Report”. Most recently he was a Professor of Bioethics and Humanism at the University of Arizona College of Medicine Phoenix.