Recycling Human Body Parts

From: Larry Klaes (lklaes@bbn.com)
Date: Tue Jul 27 1999 - 14:18:28 MDT


http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/bioethics/9907/body.transplants/

                Who Needs Bionics?
                Recycled Humans are Here

                by Jeffrey P. Kahn, Ph.D., M.P.H.
                Director, Center for Bioethics
                University of Minnesota

To quote in part:

Since transplants usually save the lives of the patients
receiving them, the benefits of heart, liver, lung or kidney
transplants outweigh the side effects of a lifetime of drugs
and the chances of complication and organ rejection.

But what about transplants that may only improve function,
appearance, or both? Are the benefits of such non-lifesaving
transplants sufficient to outweigh their risks? Restoring
basic life functions may offer sufficient benefit, say
transplanting a hand to a double amputee or a voice box to
a throat cancer patient.

But why shouldn't the gain in self-esteem of an accident
victim who gets a new nose count as much? When the risks
are made clear, and as long as claims are reasonable that
the benefits outweigh the risks, then patients are in the
best position to decide. Purely cosmetic transplants --
one can envision requests for newer knees or smaller ears --
wouldn't meet these standards.



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