Practical Issues in Obtaining Organs for Transplantation

Extract

The medical and social fascination with organ transplantation, beginning with Dr. Barnard's pioneering work with heart transplantation in the 1960s, has most recently resulted in the highly publicized and experimental baboon heart transplantation and artificial heart replacements. Transplants of proven efficacy, such as of corneas, kidneys. bone marrow, heart-lungs, hearts and livers, are a reality of modern medicine and embrace the most fundamental ideals of medicine by alleviating suffering and saving lives. Nevertheless, many question the increasing allocation of such a large proportion of our scarce medical and financial resources for such a relatively small population of recipients. The debate over how much of our limited health care resources we are willing to commit to transplantation has encouraged development of the federal Task Force on Organ Procurement and Transplantation and of statewide committees, such as the Massachusetts Task Force on Organ Transplantation.