When you were studying medicine in early-1950s Britain, what was the prevailing attitude toward organ transplantation?<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t exist! While a medical student, I recall being presented with a young patient with kidney failure. I was told to make him as comfortable as possible because he would die in two weeks.<\/p>\n
This troubled me. Some of our patients were very young, very deserving. Aside from their kidney disease, there was nothing else wrong with them. I wondered then if it might be possible to do organ transplants, because kidneys are fairly simple in terms of their plumbing. I thought in gardening terms. Might it not be possible to do an organ graft, replacing a malfunctioning organ with a healthy one? I was told, \u201cNo, that\u2019s impossible.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
Well, I\u2019ve always tended to dislike being told that something can\u2019t be done. I\u2019ve always had a somewhat rebellious nature. Just ask my wife.<\/p>\n