ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a case study of one set of problems of uncertainty critical to organ transplantation. It focuses on three sets of uncertainty problems associated with the phenomenon of rejection and attempts to control it in the transplant recipient. The first of these concerns the still indeterminate role that donor-recipient tissue typing plays in decreasing the likelihood and the magnitude of a rejection reaction. A second group of uncertainties centers on the many unresolved questions about the properties and value of the various medical regimens that have been tried to forestall or control such a reaction. In turn, these uncertainties generate a third cluster of problems: those of the often unanticipated and intractable side effects of immunosuppressive therapy. Problems of uncertainty are inherent in all areas of medical practice, and thus to some degree all medicine can be said to be experimental.
