Frankenstein Students:
     Here are the readings for next week (meeting on April 10, 2002).  These are some recommended links that together will give a reasonably good general picture & raise some interesting issues.  The pieces are fairly short, so it won't take too much time to look them over (of course, if you want, you can spend more time following up some of the links from them to other sources).  Be sure you at least take a look at the two discussions of the ethics of transplantation (the British medical center & Prof. Meilaender), for our discussion on Wednesday.  [NOTE:  these are identical to the list I sent you by email on Friday, April 5.]

On the general history of transplants & the problem of immune rejection (from bioscientists at Drexel; this is the general introduction, but for the rest of their discussion on rejection (some a bit technical) you should follow the links on the left of their webpage):
http://www.bioscience.drexel.edu/immunology/presentations/group3/Publish/page2.html

UNOS Critical Data: Milestones in transplantation  [data from UNOS, the US organ transplant network, thus mainly a US perspective, with some survival statistics]

U.S. Facts About Transplantation  [from the same site as the previous link:  UNOS recent data (current waiting list & numbers of U.S. transplants from year 2000)]

"Ethical issues" (a British medical center's discussion of transplantation)

"'Strip-mining' the Dead: When human organs are for sale" (an Oct. 1999 National Review article by Gilbert Meilaender, a theology professor at Valparaiso, which specifically critiques a recent Pennsylvania law to encourage organ donation; this is the printable version)

On the history of the artificial heart (not including the most recent effort, the Abiocor total implant):   "Search for A Substitute" [a PBS Scientific American Frontiers program.]

"State-of-the Art in Artificial Hearts"  [an interview with New York cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz, on the prospects for the Abiocor heart in early 2001; there is also a link to the first part of the interview, discussing ventricular assist devices]

Latest news about the Abiocor heart:  "Maker delays further implantation of artificial heart" [on-line article from the Baltimore Sun]

On the longer-term prospects for the bionic human:  "Artificial Eyes, Turbine Hearts"  [a Business Week article, rather speculative]