Three decades after the first heart transplant surgery stunned the world, organs including eyes, lungs, livers, kidneys, and hearts are transplanted every day. But despite its increasingly routine nature - or perhaps because of it - transplantation offers enormous ethical challenges. A medical ethicist who has been involved in the organ transplant debate for many years, Robert M. Veatch explores a variety of questions that continue to vex the transplantation community, offering his own solutions in many cases. Ranging from the most fundamental questions to recently emerging issues, "Transplantation Ethics" is the first complete and systematic account of the ethical and policy controversies surrounding organ transplants. Veatch structures his discussion around three major topics: the definition of death, the procurement of organs, and the allocation of organs. He lobbies for an allocation system - administered by nonphysicians - that considers both efficiency and equity, that takes into consideration the patient's age and previous transplant history, and that operates on a national rather than a regional level. Rich with case studies and written in an accessible style, this comprehensive reference is intended for a broad cross section of people interested in the ethics of transplantation from either the medical or public policy perspective: patients and their relatives, transplantation professionals, other health care professionals and administrators, social workers, members of organ procurement organizations, and government officials involved in the regulation of transplants.

Prizes

Winner of Lifetime Achievement Award.,Winner of Lifetime Achievement Award 6 (United States)

The book on transplantation ethics. Choice

Robert M. Veatch is professor of medical ethics at Georgetown University's Kennedy Institute of Ethics. He has served on the board of the Washington Regional Transplant Consortium since 1988 and on the United Network for Organ Sharing's Ethics Committee from 1989 to 1995, experience that has exposed him to cutting-edge debate on moral and policy issues as they emerge on the national scene. Veatch's books include Source Book in Bioethics, edited with Albert R. Jonsen and LeRoy Walters (Georgetown University Press, 1998), which was named an Outstanding Academic Book by Choice magazine.