Raising the Dead

Organ Transplants, Ethics, and Society
Erscheinungsjahr 2002
ISBN: 978-0-19-513299-1
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 304 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 644 g

Perhaps no medical breakthrough in the twentieth century is more spectacular, more hope-giving, or more fraught with ethical questions than organ transplantation. Each year some 25,000 Americans are pulled back from the brink of death by receiving vital new organs. Another 5,000 die while waiting for them. And what distinguishes these two groups has become the source of one of our thorniest ethical questions.

In Raising the Dead, Ronald Munson offers a vivid, often wrenchingly dramatic account of how transplants are performed, how we decide who receives them, and how we engage the entire range of tough issues that arise because of them. Each chapter begins with a detailed account of a specific case--Mickey Mantle's controversial liver transplant, for example--followed by careful analysis of its surrounding ethical questions (the charges that Mantle received special treatment because he was a celebrity, the larger problems involving how organs are allocated, and whether alcoholics should have an equal claim on donor livers). In approaching transplant ethics through specific cases, Munson reminds us of the complex personal and emotional dimension that underlies such issues. The book also ranges beyond our present capabilities to explore the future possibilities in xenotransplantation (transplanting animal organs into humans) and stem cell technology that would allow doctors to grow new organs from the patient's own cells.

Based on extensive scientific research, but written with a novelist's eye for the human condition, Raising the Dead shows readers the reality of organ transplantation now, the possibility of what it may become, and how we might respond to the ethical challenges it forces us to confront.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Munson, Ronald

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Angewandte Ethik & Soziale Verantwortung Medizinische Ethik
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Chirurgie Transplantationschirurgie
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Medizinische Ethik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- 1: Raising the dead: Robby Benson's heart

- 2: Mickey Mantle's liver: Part 1 - the case

- 3: Mickey Mantle's liver: Part 2 - the issues

- 4: That others may live: the dead donor rule and anencephalic infants

- 5: Kidney for sale: is it ever right to sell your kidney?

- 6: Donors of last resort: protecting vulnerable people

- 7: Kurosawa in California: Baby Fae and unproven treatments

- 8: But are they really dead? Is no heartbeat enough for death?

- 9: Xenotransplantation: Part 1 - chasing the dream

- 10: Xenotransplantation: Part 2 - hoping for the best, fearing the worst

- 11: Grow your own organs: stem-cell engineering and regenerative medicine

Über Autor(innen)

Ronald Munson is Professor of Philosophy of Science and Medicine, University of Missouri-St. Louis. He is the author of Intervention and Reflection, the most widely used medical ethics textbook in the US, and of three novels.