We have a donor

by Mark Dowie

Organ and tissue transplants have won recognition as viable treatment, stresses Dowie, a reporter on health issues, although, he notes, competition for scarce donor organs necessitates triages of candidates. We're shown that selection of recipients raises ethical, legal, financial and even political questions and challenges definitions of life and death. The author describes procurement operations that assure maximum compatibility and speed of delivery between donor cadavers and recipients, citing the case of a brain-dead teenage victim of a skateboard accident whose organs and tissues saved the lives of 30 patients. With advances in immuno-suppressive drugs, predicts the author in his sensitive, informative overview, even multiple-organ transplants will become an integral part of medical practice. - Publishers Weekly.