About the Author

Thomas E. Starzl is Distinguished Service Professor of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Among his numerous international awards and honors, Starzl is the recipient of the 2012 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for h

Reviews

"Starzl tells a fascinating story, not only in giving his distinctly personal view of the evolution of organ transplantation, but also about himself. His book is recommended for anyone with curiosity about transplantation, or with broad interests in current medical events and the remarkable successes in clinical and biological sciences during the latter half of the 20th century."
--New England Journal of Medicine

Distinguished surgeon Starzl here spends relatively little time on his patients or even in the operating theater. Instead, he focuses on research funding, the politics of hospitals and medical schools, and the great number of people and scientific advances necessary for achieving successful organ transplants. He also discusses the ethics (and dilemmas) of defining brain death, of human experimentation and randomized clinical trials, and of obtaining donor organs. Though he uses his autobiography to settle a few old scores, Starzl is a good writer, skilled at explaining medical complexities in lay language without oversimplifying. He also gives credit to his nonphysician technicians and other medical colleagues. With the current debates on healthcare costs, ``rationing,'' and perceived scientific irregularities likely to continue, this topical book is recommended for collections with strong medical or scientific/technological interests.-- Mary Chitty, Biotrends Research, Natick, Mass.