Customer Reviews

Last Best Gifts: Altruism and the Market for Human Blood and Organs

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Kieran Healy does an excellent job of showing how blood and organ donation is not simply a question of altruism, a belief held by many. The author shows, in a convincing manner, that the social organization of organ procurement has significant effects on the success rate of the different establishments charged with collecting donations. Organ donation is an incredibly sensitive subject - after all, one person's life depends on another's death - so it is wrong to ignore the social and cultural context in which decisions will be made about it. A talented writer, Kieran Healy tells a fascinating story of an important subject that has seen increasing press coverage, but never with the necessary level of careful considersation that is presented in this book.

As a sidenote, the book's layout is very classy. Some books are hard to read because of annoying font and confusing layout. This one is a pleasure to pick up not only thanks to its content, but also the careful design.

Disclosure: I went to graduate school with the author and followed the development of his work in this domain. This book is a wonderful product of his thinking and research on this topic over the years.