Flesh and Blood : Organ Transplantation and Blood Transfusion in 20th Century America

Organ transplantation is one of the most dramatic interventions in modern medicine. Since the 1950s thousands of people have lived with 'new' hearts, kidneys, lungs, corneas, and other organs and tissues transplanted into their bodies. From the beginning, though, there was simply a problem: surgeons often encountered shortages of people willing and able to give their organs and tissues. To overcome this problem, they often brokered financial arrangements. Yet an ethic of gift exchange coexisted with the 'commodification of the body'. The same duality characterized the field of blood transfusion, which was essential to the development of modern surgery. This book will be the first to bring together the histories of blood transfusion and organ transplantation. It will show how these two fields redrew the lines between self and non-self, the living and the dead, and humans and animals. Drawing on newspapers, magazines, legal cases, films and the papers and correspondence of physicians and surgeons, Lederer will challenge the assumptions of some bioethicists and policymakers that popular fears about organ transplantation necessarily reflect timeless human concerns and preoccupations with the body. She will show how notions of the body- intact, in parts, living and dead- are shaped by the particular culture in which they are embedded. Doody Review Services Reviewer: Nicole Mitchell, MA, MLIS(University of Alabama at Birmingham) Description: A concise history of organ transplantation and blood transfusion, this book begins with what author Susan E. Lederer calls the "pre-history" of organ transplantation in the nineteenth century. Much of the book is devoted to how the American people reacted to these new procedures, including mixing blood from different races and species as well as religious, cultural, and societal implications. Purpose: This book provides a fresh look at the development of organ transplantation and blood transfusion in America. Looking at the first, "failed" attempts at transplantation in the late nineteenth century, the author aims to show how people responded to these advances in modern medicine. Rather than focusing solely on how the procedures are performed, she discusses the consequences of the procedures. A major focus of the book, based on films, court cases, newspapers, and other materials, is how "popular fears about organ transplantation [do not] necessarily reflect" the way people have always felt. Audience: The author, chair of the Department of Medical History and Bioethics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, has produced a work accessible to a variety of readers, including students. Features: Divided into eight chapters, the book covers transplantation and transfusion in the early twentieth century, differences in blood "groups," medical miscegenation of races, and the religious implications of the procedures. Among the book's strengths are the author's references to historical events, drawing on newspapers and magazines from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In addition to the index, each chapter also has numerous endnotes. Assessment: Very well researched and written, this is a welcome addition to the literature on organ transplantation and blood transfusion in American society. It is recommended for all libraries, especially those with a history of medicine collection. "Flesh and Blood is the first book that considers the cultural history of two of the most dramatic surgical interventions of the twentieth century. Rather than simply focusing on the technical and scientific aspects of blood transfusion and organ transplantation, this study also examines how patients, families, and physicians confronted the social dimensions of using skin shaved from the bodies of others, taking sexual organs from others, including apes and monkeys, and "crossing the color line" in transfusion or transplantation between white and black Americans. The book explores how the body and its parts - organs, tissues, cells and fluids - possess not just medical and surgical significance, but have accrued complex political and social meaning, and it examines how transplantation and transfusion have redrawn the lines between self and non-self."--BOOK JACKET Flesh and Blood is the first book that considers the cultural history of two of the most dramatic surgical interventions of the twentieth century. Rather than simply focusing on the technical and scientific aspects of blood transfusion and organ transplantation, this study also examines how patients, families, and physicians confronted the social dimensions of using skin shaved from the bodies of others, taking sexual organs from others, including apes and monkeys, and "crossing the color line" in transfusion or transplantation between white and black Americans. The book explores how the body and its parts - organs, tissues, cells, and fluids - possess not just medical and surgical significance, but have accrued complex political and social meaning, and it examines how transplantation and transfusion have redrawn the lines between self and non-self. (Publisher) Contents......Page 8 Introduction......Page 10 1 Living on the Island of Dr. Moreau: Grafting Tissues in the Early Twentieth Century......Page 20 2 Miracles of Resurrection: Reinventing Blood Transfusion in the Twentieth Century......Page 49 3 Banking on the Body......Page 85 4 Lost Boundaries: Race, Blood, and Bodies......Page 124 5 Are You My Type? Blood Groups, Individuality, and Difference......Page 160 6 Medicalizing Miscegenation: Transplantation and Race......Page 182 7 Religious Bodies......Page 202 8 Organ Recital: Transplantation and Transfusion in Historical Perspective......Page 225 Acknowledgments......Page 232 B......Page 234 D......Page 236 I......Page 237 M......Page 238 R......Page 239 S......Page 240 Z......Page 241 Living on the Island of Doctor Moreau : grafting tissues in the early twentieth century Miracles of resurrection : reinventing blood transfusion in the twentieth century Banking on the body Lost boundaries : race, blood, and bodies Are you my type? : blood groups, individuality, and difference Medicalizing miscegenation: transplantation and race Religious bodies Organ recital : transplantation and transfusion in historical perspective.