Journals Higher Education    24 April 2008  240 Pages | 15 b/w
illus  6-1/8 x 9-1/4 inches  ISBN: 9780195161502  Also Available
As:   Bookseller Code (05)  Flesh and Blood  Organ
Transplantation and Blood Transfusion in 20th Century America
Susan E. Lederer  Organ transplantation is one of the most
dramatic interventions in modern medicine. Since the 1950s
thousands of people have lived with 'new' hearts, kidneys,
lungs, corneas, and other organs and tissues transplanted into
their bodies. From the beginning, though, there was simply a
problem: surgeons often encountered shortages of people willing
and able to give their organs and tissues. To overcome this
problem, they often brokered financial arrangements. Yet an
ethic of gift exchange coexisted with the 'commodification of
the body'. The same duality characterized the field of blood
transfusion, which was essential to the development of modern
surgery.