Spare Parts
Organ Replacement in American Society
Published on 26. November 1992
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-0-19-507650-9 (ISBN)
Description
Spare Parts centres on the developments that have occurred in the field of organ transplantation during the 1980s and early 1990s, and on the rise and fall of the Jarvik-7 artificial heart in that period. It is vividly written in a narrative ethnographic style. The interconnected stories of organ transplantation and the artificial heart are recounted in an interpretive framework that attributes their most enduring significance to the triple themes of uncertainty, gift exchange, and the allocation of scarce material and non-material resources, and to the way that they open questions of life and death, identity and solidarity.
Reviews / Votes
The book is an encyclopedic source ... This is an important book which warrants close study and thought by all those who share an in-depth or even cursory interest in the area of replacement therapy or organ transplantation. * Ivor Lensworth Livingston, Howard University, Social Science and Medicine (Vol. 35, No. 5) * can be profitably read by those looking for a concise source of details about recent trends in transplantation ... Readers will find many useful references and quotations, as well as interview materials gathered by the authors that are not available elsewhere ... Fox and Swazey have tried to convince readers, through a wealth of details and analysis, that organ replacement has gone too far. * Peter A. Ubel, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, The Journal of Clinical Ethics, Volume 5, Number 2, Summer 1994 *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
603 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-507650-9 (9780195076509)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Content
Introduction: Rebuilding people; PART I: ORGAN TRANSPLANTATION: Patterns and issues in the 1980s; Of wonder drugs, the transplant boom, and moratoria; Organ transplantation as gift exchange; Alterations in the theme of the gift; Transplantation and the medical commons; PART II: THE JARVIK-7 ARTIFICIAL HEART EXPERIMENT: Desperate Appliance: A short history of the development and use of the Jarvik-7 artificial heart; "Made in the U.S.A.": American features in the rise and fall of the Jarvik-7 artificial heart; Who shall guard the guardians?; PART III: THE PARTICIPANT OBSERVERS: Final Journeys; Leaving the field; Notes; Bibliography; Index.