Abstract
It is now nearly 30 years ago that Christian Barnard performed the first human cardiac transplantation in South Africa. Today it is indispensible in treating endstage cardiac failure. In 1993, 2500 hearts were transplanted in Europe. The major difficulties involve harvesting donor organs and chronic rejection. There are also certain restraints concerning newborns and very old patients. In addition to all the technical activities, the ethical issues have taken on new social importance, and a serious philosophical basis for harvesting must be established. The present definitions of brain death are no longer sufficient.
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© 1995 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Unger, F. (1995). Introduction. In: Unger, F. (eds) Assisted Circulation 4. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79340-0_24
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79340-0_24
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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