“Not For Doctors To Decide”

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32120, 16 October 1969, Page 1

“Not For Doctors To Decide”

It was not for the medical profession to decide whether an expensive heart transplant should be done to prolong one life by 12 months or to spend the money to save more lives in other ways, said Dr Michael Deßakey in Christchurch yesterday.

“These are mural and ethical questions that must be decided by society," he said. “If society says it will spend no more money on heart transplants, then that is a decision of society.” Dr Deßakey, a noted heart transplant surgeon from Houston, Texas, said that society made these decisions not only on the advice of the medical profession but also on the advice of government and lay organisations. “This is the right way to do it,” he said. “These are

not questions that should be determined by the medical profession.” Dr Deßakey said that the extension of a person’s life for a year or more justified the expense of a heart transplant. “We are a compassionate society,” he said, “and we try to do the best we can for every individual. We must adhere to that general concept.” However, he said, heart transplants were not the answer to heart disease. There was a strong limitation on the number of hearts available, and success was limited by the body’s rejection mechanism.

The most important objective and the ultimate answer to heart disease was to find the solution to arteriosclerosis—the main basis of heart disease. He could not predict when the specific cause of heart disease might be discovered, but it depended directly on the amount of

money available for research. Without research, knowledge would not advance at all.

Dr Deßakey said he thought that good hygienic measures

were the best precautions anyone could take against heart disease. By this he meant exercise to maintain good “body tone,” the avoidance of overweight, and keeping to a wholesome diet Dr Deßakey is renowned for his development of the artificial heart. He said yesterday that there were still some problems about using them for humans but once the artificial heart was perfected there would be no need to do human heart transplants. One of the problems was to find a material that was compatible with the surface of human blood. There were ways of doing this temporarily, but eventually the blood underwent certain changes because of being in contact with the material of the artificial heart.

Dr Deßakey predicted that If the research was intense enough, the artificial heart could be perfected within the next decade.