Polite Dissent

This PSA from Ben Casey #3 (Dell Comics, 1962) takes a look at a still-evolving aspect of medicine: organ transplantation.

At the time this comic was published, the Navy Tissue Bank — the first in the United States, if not the world — was fifteen years old. Kidneys had been transplanted successfully for all of 8 years. Neither heart nor liver transplants would be successful for another five years. Lung transplants were still further off.

Currently? In 2004 (the most recent year I have statistics for), there were 27,037 organ transplants in the United States (including 16,004 kidney transplants; 6168 liver transplants; 2016 heart transplants; and 1172 lung transplants).

Its undeniable that organ transplantation has been a dramatic success story, but let’s remember that nearly 90,000 people remain on the transplant waiting list in the U.S. alone. Have you signed your organ donor card?