Swedish prosecutors are appealing the sentence handed down to Paolo Macchiarini, a surgeon once lauded for transplanting synthetic tracheas made using patients' own stem cells, but convicted of causing bodily harm, the Associated Press reports.
As Science reported last week, Macchiarini performed three trachea transplants in Sweden, as well as others in other countries, but allegations soon arose that these transplants were not medically necessary. Further, Science noted that many of the recipients died. According to the Guardian, prosecutors in Sweden alleged that the three trachea transplants performed there constituted assault or bodily harm. A court the ruled that two of the three procedures were justified but a third was not, it added.
The Solna District Court gave him a suspended sentence on that charge, the AP notes. It reports, though, that prosecutors are now appealing that sentence. "In all cases, the interventions were contrary to science and best practice," chief prosecutor Mikael Björk says in a statement, according to the AP. "It seems clear to me that these have been completely unlawful human experiments and the penalty should be a long prison sentence, given the nature of the crime and the high penal value."
Macchiarini was fired from the Karolinska Institute following a misconduct investigation, as the Guardian noted.