More than any other altruistic gesture, blood and organ donation exemplifies the true spirit of self-sacrifice. Donors literally give of themselves for no reward so that the life of an individual--often anonymous--may be spared. But as the demand for blood and organs has grown, the value of a system that depends solely on gifts has been called into question, and the possibility has surfaced that donors might be supplemented or replaced by paid suppliers.
"Last Best Gifts" offers a fresh perspective on this ethical dilemma by examining the social organization of blood and organ donation in Europe and the United States. Gifts of blood and organs are not given everywhere in the same way or to the same extent--contrasts that allow Kieran Healy to uncover the pivotal role that institutions play in fashioning the contexts for donations. Procurement organizations, he shows, sustain altruism by providing opportunities to give and by producing public accounts of what giving means. In the end, Healy suggests, successful systems rest on the fairness of the exchange, rather than the purity of a donor's altruism or the size of a financial incentive.

Organ transplantation has revolutionized the treatment for end-stage organ failure. Immunosuppression is still a major approach currently used in the prevention and treatment of allograft rejection. Both editors Dr. Chen and Dr. Qian have been contributing to preclinical evaluation of immunosuppressants for more than 25 years in North America. Experts from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, China, Japan, Germany, Sweden, Hungary and Brazil contributed 23 chapters to this book, providing details of immunological basis in transplantation. They also describe six classes of immunosuppressive agents (calcineurin inhibitors, mTOR inhibitors, JAK-STAT inhibitors, antiproliferative agents, costimulation blockers and corticosteroids), as well as ischemia/reperfusion injury treated agents. Additionally, the new development of cell therapy in the induction of transplant tolerance is introduced. This book provides many important references for the research direction of novel immunosuppressants. Readers that will find this book useful include transplant physicians, surgeons, nurses, immunologists, pharmacologists, pharmacists, medical students, residents and trainees in transplantation.