Transplants

Book abstract:

As one of the groundbreaking medical advances of the twentieth century, this book deals with the problems of organ transportation and xenotransportation from a variety of perspectives, including ethical, legal and statistical.

The book begins by situating the issue of transplants in its historical context. From there, it is separated into three major sections, each containing work from different contributors. The first section interrogates the ethical problems surrounding transplants, with studies of the question as to how they affect identity, the recipient's perspective, and the individual versus the common good. In section two, a country-by-country account of transplant issues in Europe, there are, for example, explorations of Hungary and the often dubious notion of 'presumed consent' for transplants, the cost of transplants in Poland, Spain's record of organ donation, and the dilemma over organ trafficking throughout the continent. Section three turns to the religious perspective on transplants, incorporating research into all the major denominations, from Catholicism to Judaism, and from Islam to Buddhism, but also the agnostic viewpoint, and the book closes with some concluding remarks.

The book is aimed at lawyers, politicians, ethics philosophers, students and scientists.