Abstracts fra Bibliotek for Læger 1/2003

Nyt fra redaktionen

 

Organdonation.

Klemens Kappel:

The ethics of organ donation.

Bibl Læger 2003; 195: 6–32.

It may be that the majority of the general public is convinced that provided informed consent from everyone concerned has been obtained, there are no deep moral objections to the practice of donating, transplanting and receiving organs from brain-dead persons, and that, other things being equal, one ought to be willing to donate one’s organs upon brain death. Nonetheless, what appears to be very serious objections to organ transplantation and related practices are frequently encountered in the writings of bioethicists and other intellectuals. In this paper I critically examine an array of such objections, in particular those that have been prominent in the recent Danish debate. I argue that in general these arguments are not successful.

 

Georg Wilhelm Steller, læge og naturhistoriker.

Hans Harrestrup Andersen:

Georg Wilhelm Steller, physician and naturalist.

Bibl Læger 2003; 195: 33–49.

Steller, born in Germany 1709, accompanied the Danish explorer Vitus Bering on the second Kamchatska expedition (1741 to 1742) as physician and naturalist. The expedition suffered several mishaps, the most serious being a shortage of stored food, drinking water and antiscorbut herbs. These, combined with badly executed logistics and foul weather conditions, forced Bering to shorten the expedition’s time schedule from two years to one. Steller was the first scientist to set foot on Alaskan territory (Kayak Island), but the cut-down on the logistics only allowed Steller a 10-hour-stay before having to commence the return journey. The expedition was forced to winter on an island, which subsequently was named after Bering. 31 of 77 seamen, including Bering, succombed to diesases, mainly scorbut, during the ill-fated voyage.

Steller’s specimens, collected during the expedition, were lost with the exception of some plants and one dental plate from a dugong, new to science (Steller’s seacow). His classic work “De Bestiis Marinis” (“On the Animals of the Sea”), was later deposited in the archives in Sct. Petersburg, where the manuscript was found and published som 20 years later by another German naturalist, P.S. Pallas. Steller described many organisms new to science, some of which, like the dugong and the spectacled cormorant, he was the only scientist to observe before they became extinct. Steller died in 1746, 37 years old. His burial site was destroyed and no drawings of the man exist. His name lives on in his works and in the names of some of the organisms, he was the first scientist to describe i.e. Steller’s seacow, Steller’s sea eagle, Steller’s eider and Steller’s jay.

 

»Kunne de dog ikke have givet den til én, der var yngre!« Jens Christian Skou og Nobelprisen.

Torben Clausen:

“Couldn’t they have given it to a younger person!” Jens Christian Skou and the Nobel Prize.

Bibl Læger 2003; 195: 50-63.

The above title was Skou’s spontaneous response to the news that he would receive the Nobel Prize, having reached an age of 79 years. Still, he meets the demanding challenges of a Nobel laureate – lecturing all over the world about his discovery of the Na+,K+-pump and acting as strong ambassador for science in Denmark. Moreover, he is also devoting much time developing constructive criticism of the structure and financing of science in Denmark. Skou emphasizes the importance of giving young talented scientists better opportunities to apply for their own grant money, and also in other ways providing individual freedom to develop their own original ideas. He is skeptical about the many attempts to boost science by establishing »cigar boxes« with money earmarked for purposes defined by politicians rather than scientists.

 

Det nye medicinske paradigmeskift. Et notat om molekylærbiologiens implementering i diagnostik, terapi og klinisk forskning.

Finn Cilius Nielsen, Niels Borregaard, Niels E. Skakkebæk, Flemming Skovby, Ulla M.Wewer &Jens F. Rehfeld

 

Et medicinsk paradigmeskift? – til hvad og hvorfor? En kommentar i seks punkter.

Dorte Effersøe Gannik & Susanne Reventlow

 

Forsidebillede: Jens Christian Skou modtager Nobelprisen af kong Gustav af Sverige.