Transplanted Corneas Are A Window To The Soul

You may remember the movie At First Sight, starring Val Kilmer and Mira Sorvino, based on the true story of Virgil, penned by Oliver Sacks.

The Sacks story on Virgil’s bilateral corneal transplants, To See and Not to See, was also published as a clinical vignette in his book, An Anthropologist on Mars.  Here is an excerpt.  It’s a striking and poignant reminder of how vision is a learned process, and the dynamic and inseparable interplay of eyes, brain, and visual pathways.  Virgil’s story was a forerunner of Mike May’s experiences, which I wrote about in the Journal of Behavioral Optometry.

Let’s transition from Oliver Sacks to Mind Hacks, the superb blog from authors Tom Stafford and Vaughan Ball.  Their post today bears the title above.  It lends a fascinating note on the social meaning of eyes and why people are much more reluctant to donate the cornea after death than other bodily organs, citing a recent article from the journal Transplantation.  Here is an excerpt that speaks volumes:

“Medicine and science have long understood the body as a “machine.” This view has fitted with medical notions of transplantation, with donors being a source of biologic “goods.” However, even a cursory glance at the rituals surrounding death makes it apparent that there is more to a dead body than simply its biologic parts; in death, bodies continue as the physical substrate of relationships. Of all the organs, it is the eyes that are identified as the site of sentience, and there is a long tradition of visual primacy and visual symbolism in virtually all aspects of culture.

It therefore seems likely that of all the body parts, it is the eyes that are most central to social relationships. A request to donate the eyes therefore is unlikely to be heard simply in medical terms as a request to donate a “superfluous” body part for the benefit of another. That the eyes are not simply biologic provides one explanation for both the lower rates of corneal donation, compared with that of other organs, and the lack of adequate corneal donation to meet demand.”

- Leonard J. Press, O.D., FCOVD, FAAO

 

 

 

 

http://visionhelp.wordpress.com/2011/06/02/mind-hacks-and-medical-foibles/