Organ Transplantation

“The issue of organ transplantation is by no means one that is immediately peculiar to the 21st century and the medical advances it has heralded. Reference to successful organ transplants can be found in Ancient Greek and Indian literature. The first successful allograft can be dated as far back as 1668 when Job van Meeneren used a portion of a dog’s skull for human cranial repair. However, the widespread and conventional use of transplantation as a medical procedure did indeed only come about in recent history. This was due, in large part, to the discovery of surgical vessel to vessel anastomosis at the turn of the 20th century and the revolutionary role of immunosuppressive medicines in preventing organ rejection in the 1960’s (Riaz). Serious religious and ethical discourse concerning organ transplantation coincides with this proliferation of organ transplantation as a medical procedure in the latter half of the 20th century.”