Harvest or Procurement Of Organs for Transplant

Abstract

<h3>To the Editor:—</h3> I would agree with Dr. Marmor in his criticism of the "harvesting" and "procurement" terminology in respect to organ transplants. Unfortunately word association is a problem that lexicographers and psychiatrists seem to share in common; each of us has his preferred terms bias. I must confess that my own bias is prejudiced by the presence of old automobile graveyards along the highways of the United States, in spite of our beautification programs, and the term "salvage" usually appearing on a large sign over the entrance. A possible substitute is "tissue acquisition," this can then be related in an alphabetical thesaurus near the terms that are frequently associated with the concept, ie, tissue banks, tissue donors, and tissue preservation, all of which are terms that appear in medical subject headings and reflect present usage in the medical literature. I prefer the broader term "tissue" to "organ," since cellular