ABSTRACT
Human organ transplantation has been confronted with psychological and social phenomena that are inherent in the various stages of a therapeutic innovation. In certain respects, the evolution of organ transplantation since 1970 has varied from the process of therapeutic innovation. Two major axes of comparison are the medical status of the various forms of transplantation and the medical profession's outlook on them. Medical status includes the nature and outcome of laboratory and clinical activities. Virtually all forms of human organ transplantation—kidney, heart, liver, lung, pancreas, and bone-marrow grafts—are still exclusively carried out on patients in the end stage of the diseases, who have failed to respond to more fully established, conventional medical and surgical therapies. The composite picture of renal transplantation in the 1970s that emerges is of a field still concentrating on persistent clinical problems that began about fifteen years ago—a field that has reached a plateau.
