Raising the Dead - Organ transplants, ethics, and society (Hardcover)

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.

General

Imprint:	Oxford UniversityPress
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	June 2002
First published:	2002
Authors:	Ronald Munson (Professor of Philosophy of Science and Medicine)
Dimensions:	241 x 160 x 26mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	298
ISBN-13:	978-0-19-513299-1
Categories:	Books > Medicine > General issues > Medical ethics Books > Medicine > Surgery > Transplant surgery Books > Health, Home & Family > Family & health > Popular medicine > General Promotions
LSN:	0-19-513299-8
Barcode:	9780195132991

Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate? Let us know about it.

Does this product have an incorrect or missing image? Send us a new image.

Is this product missing categories? Add more categories.

Review This Product

No reviews yet - be the first to create one!