The transplant imaginary : mechanical hearts, animal parts, and moral thinking in highly experimental science / Lesley A. Sharp.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sharp, Lesley Alexandra.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ethnology--United States.

Ethnology.

Medical anthropology--United States.

Medical anthropology.

Transplantation of organs, tissues, etc--Social aspects--United States.

Transplantation of organs, tissues, etc.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (236 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, [2014]

Language Note:

English

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

In The Transplant Imaginary, author Lesley Sharp explores the extraordinarily surgically successful realm of organ transplantation, which is plagued worldwide by the scarcity of donated human parts, a quandary that generates ongoing debates over the marketing of organs as patients die waiting for replacements. These widespread anxieties within and beyond medicine over organ scarcity inspire seemingly futuristic trajectories in other fields. Especially prominent, longstanding, and promising domains include xenotransplantation, or efforts to cull fleshy organs from animals for human use, and bioengineering, a field peopled with "tinkerers" intent on designing implantable mechanical devices, where the heart is of special interest. Scarcity, suffering, and sacrifice are pervasive and, seemingly, inescapable themes that frame the transplant imaginary. Xenotransplant experts and bioengineers at work in labs in five Anglophone countries share a marked determination to eliminate scarcity and human suffering, certain that their efforts might one day altogether eliminate any need for parts of human origin. A premise that drives Sharp's compelling ethnographic project is that high-stakes experimentation inspires moral thinking, informing scientists' determination to redirect the surgical trajectory of transplantation and, ultimately, alter the integrity of the human form.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Moral Neutrality in Experimental Science

1. The Reconfigured Body of the Transplant Imaginary

2. Hybrid Bodies and Animal Science: The Promises of Interspecies Proximity

3. Artificial Life: Perfecting the Mechanical Heart

4. Temporality and Social Desire in Anticipatory Science

Conclusion: The Moral Parameters of Virtuous Science

Notes

References

Index.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780520277960

0520277961

9780520957152

0520957156

OCLC:

860924023