In a series tracing decisive moments in the life of our National Health Service, medical historian Sally Sheard explores how the life-saving invention of the 'artificial kidney' machine in the 1960s came at a cost, bringing moral dilemmas in its wake, for doctors and society as a whole.

As demand for new treatments and devices rose, especially for costly ones like kidney dialysis, doctors were faced with increasingly difficult choices - which patients should they treat?

Producer: Beth Eastwood. Show less