Raising the Dead: Organ Transplants, Ethics, and Society

by Ronald Munson

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195132991
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/17/2002
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

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.

Editorial Reviews

"In the wake of the catastrophic losses of World War II, Soviet citizens sought to rebuild their lives and families. In this groundbreaking study, Nakachi examines the efforts of women, doctors, and health officials to counter the fierce pronatalism of the state. Her book is indispensable reading for anyone interested in the ongoing struggle over women's reproductive rights." — Wendy Z. Goldman, co-author of Fortress Dark and Stern: The Soviet Home Front during World War II

"Raising the Dead makes a quantum leap forward in our understanding of gender, reproduction, and family planning after World War II. Distinguished by impressive archival sleuthing and crystal clear prose, Nakachi's book is a landmark study that will inform and inspire a new generation of work." — Paula A. Michaels, author of Lamaze: An International History

"Mie Nakachi's brilliant book shows conclusively the combination of incompetence and insensitivity in postwar pronatalist policies that criminalized abortion, restricted divorce, and liberated men from parental responsibility for children born out of wedlock. Nakachi shows how the authorities jerry-rigged the system to try to accomplish multiple goals at the same time, leaving only doctors and women themselves to advocate for women's rights to control their own fertility. This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to know not only about reproduction in the context of a demographic disaster but also about the workings of Soviet policy makers who often operated from hidden motivations that they shared only in behind-the-scenes documents." — Elizabeth A. Wood, author of The Baba and the Comrade: Gender and Politics in Revolutionary Russia

"A monumental and gripping study of the politics of the family and reproduction in the USSR under and after Stalin. Among other things, Nakachi explains how the world's first law to recognize a woman's right to abortion came about in 1955, and in a country without a modern feminist movement." — Timothy J. Colton, author of Russia: What Everyone Needs to Know

"Munson provides a useful review of where we've been and what lies ahead.... He does a service in raising the issues and pointing to the needs of an aging society in which health care is anything but equitable."—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

Novelist and professor Munson (philosophy of science and medicine, Univ. of Missouri, St. Louis) here provides a wonderful introduction to a variety of ethical issues surrounding organ transplantation. With a minimum of technical terminology, he discusses the definition of death, methods for obtaining organs, recipient selection, xenotransplantation, and stem cell research. Using case studies, both real and fictitious, he also offers a current look at these difficult issues. The chapters on xenotransplants and stem cell research are particularly interesting for their jargon-free description of those processes and their potential. Although Munson is not hesitant to include opinions and recommendations, it is always clear when the opinions expressed are his own. Arthur Caplan's The Ethics of Organ Transplants (LJ 3/15/99) discusses many of the same issues, but it is slightly dated and somewhat more philosophical. Munson's extremely readable and affordable contribution is highly recommended for public library and undergraduate collections. Tina Neville, Univ. of South Florida Lib., St. Petersburg Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Munson (philosophy of science and medicine, U. of Missouri at St. Louis) explores the ethical dilemmas of current and possible future practices in organ transplantation. Beginning each chapter with a case study (real in the case of current practices and fictional in the case of the rest), he discusses the major issue in each case, presenting opposing viewpoints as well as his own opinion. Issues include whether Mickey Mantle received special treatment for the transplantation of his liver, transplantation from other species, and the possibilities of growing one's own transplants. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

One man's take on the art, science, and ethics of organ transplantation. Given the author's other life as a thriller writer (Night Vision, 1995, etc.), it's not too surprising that the take is often as melodramatic as the title.

Kirkus Reviews