ABSTRACT
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, transplant teams were highly aware of the gift-exchange dimensions of organ transplantation, its more than biomedical meaning, and the psychic and social effects of the symbolic power of giving and receiving an organ. In the context of the growing organ shortage "crisis," the theme of organ transplantation as a gift of life was framed and addressed primarily as a social policy problem of supply and demand. Brain death criteria were progressively developed during the 1970s by the medical community and through a series of court decisions and numerous state statutes on the determination of death. The growing imbalance between the demand for transplantable organs and their supply in the United States and other countries has fueled long-simmering concerns about illicit black markets in body parts and debate about the pros and cons of various forms of regulated payment for organ donations.
