Ethical Issues in the Implantation of the Total Artificial Heart

IN June 1980 researchers at the University of Utah requested that the institutional review board approve a protocol to implant a total artificial heart in a living patient. In our experience, never has a request for a single experimental protocol raised so many ethical questions. The culmination of the efforts of the review board and the research surgical team to develop a process that would adequately inform the patient and to protect his or her rights occurred on December 2, 1982, with the implantation of a total artificial heart in Dr. Barney B. Clark. The application to an institutional review . . .