In this episode of The Coffee Hour, Adam sits down with friend and Seattle native Maren Clark, who knows a lot about kidney dialysis. They discuss what kidneys do, what dialysis does when the kidneys don’t work properly and the history of dialysis, the Scribner Shunt as well as the “Life or Death Committee” (often called “The God Committee”), the shadowy group of seven people, all from different walks of life, who were forced to ration dialysis to patients in the early years.

Through this, they discuss the ethics of modern medicine, Bioethics and what they would do if they were in the position to decide which patients had to live or die.

All this and more on The Coffee Hour.

For more information about dialysis and the Committee, read the articles Maren references here:

LIFE magazine article:

https://books.google.com/books?id=qUoEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA1&dq=life+magazine+nov+1962&pg=PA102&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false LIFE magazine article November 1962 issue. The cover of the issue is about nuclear missiles and the Cuban missile crisis. Shana's article is listed as the article of the week.

Source for invention of dialysis: I actually couldn't find the right one but I found the same info here: A brief history of dialysis https://www.dpcedcenter.org/news-events/news/a-brief-history-of-dialysis/

More interesting sites and articles: Early History of Dialysis: a view from Seattle https://doi.org/10.1053/j.ajkd.2007.01.017