Fifty years ago on December 23, 1954, Dr. Joseph E. Murray accomplished the impossible. He transplanted a kidney from Ronald Herrick into identical twin brother Richard, the victim of fatal kidney disease. Views regarding transplantation prior to this breakthrough were anything but enthusiastic. "We were told it was impossible and that we were playing God and shouldn't do it," says 85-year-old Dr. Murray, who eventually won a Nobel Prize for his achievement.

Dr. Murray's accomplishment spawned a medical technology that would eventually save over 400,000 lives. His first kidney surgery was followed by the first liver transplant in 1963, the first heart transplant in 1968 and two decades later, the first lung transplant. Today transplantation is the routine therapy for organ failure.