ABSTRACT
The modern beginning of transplantation is the successful transfusion of blood. Organ transplantation is a well-established clinical treatment and part of the specialised surgical services in many hospitals in the world. The expansion and development of organ transplantation as regular procedures in health care services has had an impact beyond the clinic. It has affected the legal, organisational and cultural conditions for the access, use and transfer of body parts for therapeutic and research purposes. The organisation and management of the alchemy of transforming the dead into "living" organs is institutionalised in an organ transplantation system. The functioning of transplantation systems is constrained by the scarcity of organs, and there has been a growing gap between transplant demand and supply. Problems with the technical infrastructural support in less industrialised countries seriously constrain effective organ transplantation. Ambivalence is expressed by relatives of the potential donors and even by health care personnel involved in transplantation procedures.
