Introduction

Abstract

And so began a special episode of the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World programme, ‘Barnard Faces His Critics’, which changed the future of British medical-media relations. It was simply an unprecedented occurrence for a gathering of over 100 people, comprised mainly of medical professionals, to participate in a televised studio debate discussing the technical, social and ethical implications of a recent medical innovation. The issue at hand was one of the most controversial and famous operations of the twentieth century — human heart transplantation — first performed by the South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard on 3 December 1967.