Biolust, Brain Death, and the Battle Over Organ Transplants: Americas Biotech Juggernaut and its Japanese Critics

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William LaFleur (1936-2010), an eminent scholar of Japanese studies, left behind a substantial number of influential publications, as well as several unpublished works. The most significant of these examines debates concerning the practice of organ transplantation in Japan and the United States, and is published here for the first time. This provocative book challenges the North American medical and bioethical consensus that considers the transplantation of organs from brain dead donors as an unalloyed good. It joins a growing chorus of voices that question the assumption that brain death can be equated facilely with death. It provides a deep investigation of debates in Japan, introducing numerous Japanese bioethicists whose work has never been treated in English. It also provides a history of similar debates in the United States, problematizing the commonly held view that the American public was quick and eager to accept the redefinition of death. A work of intellectual and social history, this book also directly engages with questions that grow ever more relevant as the technologies we develop to extend life continue to advance. While the benefits of these technologies are obvious, their costs are often more difficult to articulate. Calling attention to the risks associated with our current biotech trajectory, LaFleur stakes out a highly original position that does not fall neatly onto either side of contemporary US ideological divides.

Reviews

In Biolust, Brain Death, and the Battle over Organ Transplants, William LaFleur brings his extensive experience in religious studies to bear on discussions around organ transplantation in Japan. Skillfully completed and edited by Edward Drott after the authors passing, the writing is engaging and at times polemical, but also carefully contextualized by Amy Borovoys introduction and the conclusion by Susumu Shimazono. Without doubt, the questions raised by the book remain important a decade after it was originally penned. * Iza Kavedija, Assistant Professor of Medical Anthropology, University of Cambridge, UK *

Author Bio

William Lafleur was E. Dale Saunders Professor in Japanese Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. Edward Drott is Associate Professor of Japanese Religions, Sophia University, Japan.