The mechanical hearts, animal parts, and moral thinking in highly experimental science Sharp, Lesley Alexandra creator author text bibliography Print books. cau [2014] 2014 monographic eng

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xiv, 221 pages ; 24 cm " 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. "-- 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 Lesley A. Sharp Includes bibliographical references and index n-us--- Transplantation of organs, tissues, etc Social aspects United States Ethnology United States Medical anthropology United States Organ Transplantation Anthropology, Medical Ethnology United States RD120.7 .S492 2014 9780520277984 (paper) 2013024442 DLC 130816 20161026151657.0 857863195 eng