Engaging transplantation ethics

The organisation of this collection is anachronistic and this provides a clue to its strengths and weaknesses. It begins with a historical review of transplantation and then considers a series of ethical issues raised by transplantation, including threats to identity, xenotransplantation, brain death, rights and duties, the media, conflict between individual benefit and the “common good”, and the appropriate limits of transplantation. The remaining sections cover transplantation practices in Europe, including religious perspectives. While the division of chapters according to national boundaries may seem of little relevance to non-European readers, the format actually provides tangible local exempla of many of the topical issues in transplantation, including presumed consent, cultural determinants of organ donation and organ commerce.