Transplantation Ethics: Second Edition - Paperbackby Robert M. Veatch (Author), Lainie F. Ross (Author) Although the history of organ transplant has its roots in ancient Christian mythology, it is only in the past fifty years that body parts from a dead person have successfully been procured and transplanted into a living person. After fourteen years, the three main issues that Robert Veatch first outlined in his seminal study Transplantation Ethics still remain: deciding when human beings are dead;