ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part addresses major ethical, legal, and public policy problems of research using human subjects. It focuses on a different type of dilemma posed by the use of the artificial heart, all of them ultimately address one crucial background issue: the process of decision-making. From the beginning, the total artificial heart had been conceived of as a permanent replacement for a failed human heart, and attention was first focused on it as a completely implantable device. The part addresses issues regarding the use of the artificial heart as a permanent replacement for a human heart. In tracing the history of the total artificial heart, it demonstrates that its development was led largely by scientific elite that consistently ignored the important ethical and social issues at stake.
