2026-09-20T07:57:31Zhttps://dspace.mit.edu/server/oai/requestoai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/684722026-06-06T01:05:53Zcom_1721.1_7582com_1721.1_7581col_1721.1_131023
Robert Kanigel.
Ruppel, Emily (Emily C.)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Graduate Program in Science Writing.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Graduate Program in Science Writing
MIT Program in Writing & Humanistic Studies
2012-01-12T19:30:25Z
2012-01-12T19:30:25Z
2011
2011
http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/68472
769910947
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).
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.
by Emily Ruppel.
S.M. in Science Writing
39 p.
eng
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
M.I.T. theses are protected by
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http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582
Graduate Program in Science Writing.
Hallowed hands
Thesis
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Publication
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<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.</Abstract>
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