A Heart without Life: Artificial Organs and the Lived Body.

LIFESTYLES; ARTIFICIAL organs; BIONICS; MEDICAL technology; PATIENTS' attitudes; PHENOMENOLOGY; LIFE skills; QUALITY of life; ARTIFICIAL hearts; BIOETHICS

The use of artificial organs is likely to increase in the future, given technological advances, increases in chronic diseases, and limited donor organs. This article examines how artificial organs could affect people's experience and conceptualization of bodies and our understanding of the relation of body to self. I focus on artificial heart devices and argue that these have two conflicting potential influences. First, they may influence people to regard the body as machinelike and separable from the self. Second, they may effect changes to subjective experience that can be understood as changes to the self, confirming the self's embodiment. My primary purpose is to increase our understanding of what might change if it becomes more usual to have a body that is partly nonorganic. But I also argue that the analysis points to potential ethical concerns related to strengthening biomedical conceptions of the body and to the devaluing of bodies and body parts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Hastings Center Report is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)