ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that social science research and teaching, analysis and interpretation can inform social criticism, enlighten social policy, and contribute to social improvement. It explores important social, moral, and spiritual questions. The chapter suggests that transplantation had been defined by the medical profession and society at large as a "gift of life" since the first human organ grafts were performed. Talcott Parsons's outlook provided a penetratingly deep and broad sociological perspective on health, illness, and medicine that enabled the author to identify and appreciate their distinctive attributes, while linking them to other social and cultural phenomena, institutions, and processes. It highlighted the complex and subtle relations between science, medicine, religion, and magic, the interplay of rational and non-rational factors. The theme of medical and moral uncertainty has pervaded much of the author's reflection, research, and writing: on patient-oriented clinical research in an array of American and European settings.
