Humane solutions to the problems of damaged bodies have always been the realm of surgeons. After the discoveries of antiseptic surgery and anaesthesia in the nineteenth century, surgical practice could make moderately safe and pain-free contributions to improved health care. However, with characteristic boldness, surgeons quickly extended their activities to other predicaments. Blood transfusion became increasingly routine in the 1920s and eventually had an enormous impact on most areas of medicine. More recently, open-heart surgery and organ transplantation have enabled many individuals to overcome congenital defects and chronic disease, extending their lives by many years. Bone marrow grafts have permitted cures of blood cancers and a variety of genetic diseases. Stem cell science and other aspects of cell biology have inaugurated the age of tissue engineering, which may have huge potential for the renovation of nervous and muscular tissues. Spectacular advances in techniques for refurbishing the body are not made without extraordinary audacity and risk.