The Downfall of Paolo Macchiarini and the Defrauding of the Medical Establishment: A History and Bioethical Review
As of September 2020, of the 20 patients that previously world-renowned surgeon Paolo Macchiarini operated on to provide an artificial trachea, only three are still alive (Delaere 2020). Paolo Macchiarini was once regarded as one of the best surgeons in the world whose claim to fame was his “revolutionary” artificial trachea transplants. Not only did Macchiarini deceive his patients, providing them with faulty and untested medical interventions, but he also deceived and defrauded entire medical institutions. One of these institutions included the prominent Karolinska Institutet (KI) of Sweden, which is responsible for awarding the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Through the release of a three-part documentary by Swedish National Television (SVT), the resulting public outcry, and police and institutional investigations, Macchiarini’s deception was uncovered and came crashing down in a spectacular fashion. Many questions surrounding this case study remain unanswered such as how Macchiarini was able to convince most of the medical establishment of the validity of his fraudulent work and how he could get some of them to vehemently defend him after the fraud was exposed. This thesis aims to provide an overview of the Paolo Macchiarini scandal and the ensuing fallout while also assessing the broader implications of this case study for the scientific and medical research community through a bioethical lens.