Raising the Dead: Organ Transplants, Ethics and Society

Summary

Title: Raising the Dead: Organ Transplants, Ethics and Society
Author: Ronald Munson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195178017

Pro:
•  Covers many recent questions
•  Easy to read, aimed at average person
•  Uses real and hypothetical examples to concretize issues

Con:
•  Not as much breadth and depth as some others

Description:
•  Case studies used to illustrate ethical dilemmas in organ transplants
•  Wide variety of difficult issues addressed
•  Explores possible options for future and their ethical problems

Book Review

Even the idea that organ transplants represent a great achievement in medicine is somewhat faulty. As Ronald Munson explains in this book Raising the Dead, real medical miracles involve causing a person's illness to disappear - the example of antibiotics is the clearest and most common. Organ transplants do not do this however: because a recipient has to take anti-rejection drugs for the rest of their lives, always fearing an infection which will get past their now-suppressed immune system, transplants simply trade one acute illness for another chronic condition.

Transplants aren't a miracle, but they do work - ideally, they are a stopgap measure until something more permanent and effective can be developed. Fortunately, there does exist such a possibility on the horizon, but it causes even more controversy than anything discussed so far. Eventually, people may be able to simply have replacement organs grown from their own DNA, eliminating matters of procurement, distribution, and even organ rejection. But this will apparently require the use of embryonic stem cells developed with cloning technology, opening up a host of different ethical debates.

Munson's book does not cover nearly as much ground as other works on the subject, but it does cover all of the most basic and most important issues. Munson also makes extensive use of examples of how people - mostly real, but sometimes hypothetical - have to deal with organ transplants, both as donors and as recipients.

This concretizes the ethical arguments and helps to make sure that we don't forget that this isn't an simply an abstract discussion about ethics. What we are dealing with, and what we should not forget, is that this is a discussion about life and death - who lives, who dies, and why. There are real people out there who are suffering, and decisions about the ethics of organ transplants will have a tremendous impact upon them.

Raising the Dead: Organ Transplants, Ethics and Society

Because Munson's book is relatively recent, it covers a few recent topics like those issues regarding stem cell research and the growth of new organs. Munson's book is also aimed at people who don't have much experience either with medicine or with ethical philosophy, making it a good introduction for the average reader.