Hallowed hands
Name
769910947-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
3.25 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
c63099a5277822a2a9b31a217969b6ca
Author(s)
Ruppel, Emily (Emily C.)
Advisor(s)
Robert Kanigel.
Date Issued
2011
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
Human hand transplantation became a medical reality at the turn of the 2 1st century. Often hailed by media and the general public as miraculous, these life-changing surgeries are also highly controversial. Many doctors, ethicists, and medical professionals feel the benefits of having a hand transplant do not outweigh the risks of the immunosuppressive drugs required to keep the complex foreign tissues alive on the bodies of chronically disabled yet otherwise healthy people. Patients' reactions to having the operation, to the drugs, to the physical therapy, and to the psychological consequences of wearing the hand of a dead person range from grateful acceptance to disgust and requested reamputation. This thesis explores the struggles and triumphs of human hand transplants through the stories of several patients and doctors. The rise of hand transplantation as a field, including the ongoing controversy surrounding the first successful human hand transplant, is also related as insight into how doctors and patients in innovative medicine make decisions, and where hand transplantation stands as a technology to benefit both medicine and scientific research.
Description
Thesis (S.M. in Science Writing)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Humanities, Graduate Program in Science Writing, 2011.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 31-37).
Subjects
Graduate Program in Science Writing.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Graduate Program in Science Writing
MIT Program in Writing & Humanistic Studies
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copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but
reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written
permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.
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