Margaret Lock's Twice Dead is a deeply moving book that raises critically important questions about life and death in the modern world. It is a masterpiece of comparative anthropology and will surely appeal to a wide audience-to people interested in ethics, anthropology, science studies, and studies of the Latour, author of Pandora's Hope: Essays on the Reality of Science Studies

This is an excellent and exceptional book in three distinct ways: first, in making us rethink the recent changes in our criteria for death; second, in the careful comparative anthropology of Japanese and North American attitudes to organ transplants; and third, in making us see clearly the connection between organ transplants and changing criteria for death. What we have often taken innocently as the progress of medicine is an intricate and complex story about the meaning of life and our body Hacking, author of The Social Construction of What?

Twice Dead is a marvel of perfect tensions. While eschewing simple cultural dichotomies, it deftly balances the immediacy of interviews with deep historical reflection; its theoretical insights are razor-sharp, yet its spirit is unfailingly compassionate. Wise and eminently readable, Lock's superb book portrays how impersonal, modern technology compels us to grapple with the most intimate, age-old questions-the bonds between bodies and persons, the borders between the living and the Kuriyama, author of The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine

In writing Twice Dead, Lock has performed a magisterial act of scholarship. The text is all-inclusive, fair-minded, and based on the most scrupulous use of the anthropological armamentarium. A must-read for doctors!--Richard Selzer, ., The Exact Location of the Soul: New and Selected Essays