When 1,200 medical researchers assembled at Manhattan's Waldorf-Astoria hotel last week for the Sixth International Congress of the Transplantation Society, some of the loudest applause was given not to a physician but to a philosophy professor from Indianapolis. In 1959 the man, John Riteris, now in his early 40s, was stricken by severe kidney disease. Faced with the prospect of imminent deathor dismal years on a kidney machinehe agreed to what was then still a highly experimental treatment: replacement of his dying kidneys with one donated by his twin brother. Now, 17 years...
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