ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the catastrophic disease decisionmaking with the role and authority of physician-investigators. It emphasizes "physician-investigators", the group of participants encompassed in this label includes not only M.D'.s but also Ph.D'.s from a variety of disciplines as well as nurses, social workers, psychologists, and paramedical personnel. The chapter discusses the conflicting pressures and clinical uncertainties which physician-investigators encounter in investigative medicine. Despite the common background factors which investigators bring to their careers, other significant individual determinants and forces shape their personal beliefs and actions in medical decisionmaking. An examination of the motivations of transplanters may begin to reveal the pressures under which they operate and the reasons for the intensity as well as the variation of their response. At present no constituted body exists to which an investigator can turn to obtain such authority.
