Field of medicine: Ethics.

Format: Softcover book.

Audience: Health care providers, organ transplantation specialists, bioethicists, philosophers, theologians, social scientists, and scholars in the medical humanities.

Content: Sponsored by the Chicago-based Park Ridge Center for the Study of Health, Faith, and Ethics, this book is the result of ongoing discussions among an interdisciplinary group of experts from diverse fields. It addresses the existential crises raised by the sophisticated science and technology of organ transplantation.

Highlights: This book explores the cultural, religious, and humanistic dimensions of organ donation and transplantation. Medical and social practices in organ transplantation are examined through the phenomenologic lens of human experience. The dualities of life and death, body and mind, and self and community are considered as they relate to organ procurement, donation, and transplantation.

Limitations: None.

Context: Scientific advances in organ transplantation continue at a remarkable pace. Organ donation and transplantation challenge beliefs about the nature of what it means to be "human." This book is an exciting and significant contribution to the field because of its unique emphasis on humanistic interpretations of the experience and practice of organ transplantation.

Reviewer: Patricia A. Marshall, PhD, Loyola University Medical Center.