Ethics regarding living-donor organ transplantation (original) (raw)
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Ethics in Organ Transplantation
Acta Facultatis Medicae Naissensis, 2018
Organ transplantation is specific medical procedure which is used as a way of treatment. Transplantation is often the only way of curing a patient. Today, hundreds of people in the world live successfully with donor organs, and transplantations as medical interventions are performed routinely. In Europe, about 10,000 patients are saved annually by transplantation, but there are far larger numbers of those waiting for their so-called rescue organ. In all countries, transplant medicine is regulated by special laws, regulations and conventions that provide medical, legal, and ethical regulations. Organ donation is an act of charity and giving, and not a contract on movement. Righteousness and fairness are emphasized in transplantation medicine. The question of organ transplanting affects the most intimate issues of human integrity, human dignity, health and illness. That is why certain instructions, rules of conduct and treatment are required from ethics. Today, in ethical dilemmas reg...
Organ donation and transplantation medicine: Ethical framework and solutions
2015
Advances in surgery and the introduction of drugs that suppress the immune system have paved the way for transplantation medicine. Today, the donation and transplantation of tissues and organs (including heart, kidney, liver, lung, pancreas, cornea, bone marrow, and face) are feasible. Transplantation medicine has created new areas of ethical and legal discussion. In these discussions, four principles generally accepted in medical ethics – beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, and justice – have featured in their different aspects. In particular, the principles of non-maleficence and autonomy can collide. The dramatic increase in the number of people waiting for an organ shows that any deadlock on this subject means the death of many; hence, it is important to find a solution appropriate to the values held in society. In this study discussing current transplantation methods throughout the world, basic ethical dilemmas are addressed and effective solutions sought in accordance with ethical perspectives.
Ethical Problems in Organ Transplantation
Annals of Internal Medicine, 1967
It could be concluded from the existence of this colloquium and from others like it in the recent past that there is a tide of dissatisfaction against the way in which medicine has developed in the twentieth century. Articulate critics can be found, both within and outside the profession, who find fault with the rapidity, or alternatively the sluggishness, with which new knowledge of potential therapeutic values has been applied. Still others have deplored the way in which the transition has been made from animal experimentation to human trial. It has been suggested that an immutable philosophical, moral and ethical code be defined within the limits of which scientific advances could be exploited effectively and humanely in man. It seems to me that the most vexing and profound questions with which we will ultimately be confronted are those concerning measures that could control both the numbers and the genetic constitution of great masses of people in a deliberate effort to improve the quality and the comfort of the human race. Fortunately, it is not my responsibility today to discuss these matters beyond drawing attention to the distinction between the noble aims of these
2021
In human life, organ donation and transplantation is one of the most significant importance to extend functional life and support quality of life. Also, this process is not related exclusively to medical teams, but relates to general society because the sources for this process are only human due to ethical and legal issues. The process requires ethical and legal consideration, because it presents many challenges and risks to society and the medical community. The aim of this paper is to consider the advantages of transplantation for human life. It considers the controversy surrounding the ethical and legal considerations, from the concept of brain death (brain-dead donor) and the market for human organs (living donor). The operation of organ donation and transplantation are very complex and sensitive because it directly relates to human life. There should be more careful observation and diagnosis by the medical team during the donation process and the transplantation process.
Ethical dichotomies in organ transplantation a time for bridge building
General Hospital Psychiatry, 1996
Rapid advances of the past 15 years have resolved many of the technical and immunologic limitations to organ transplantation. With the success rates that can now be achieved, there is increased attention to the limited supply of donor organs and to cost considerations, the remaining obstacles to wide application of organ transplantation. Competition for organs and for funding demands greater focus on patient selection and resource allocation. As Charles Taylor, philosopher and political scientist, has written, ethical formulations inevitably conflict when each is taken to its logical end point. In the 1960s, a life boat ethics framework predominated for selection of transplant recipients. The opposing egalitarian framework of recent decades has allowed for enrollment of older transplant recipients and those with histories of substance abuse. In the United States, alcoholic liver disease has been the most common indication for orthotopic liver transplantation since 1987. Among those awaiting transplantation, urgency has been a priority over time waiting. But many potential transplant candidates who are young and who appear relatively stable die while waiting. Despite the shortage of cadaveric organs, physicians and ethicists have for the most part eschewed rewards or reimbursement for living related organ donation. Such conventions are a function of the prevailing zeitgeist and are susceptible to a paradigm shift in parallel with overall changes in societal regulation of medical practice. Theorists and practitioners are immersed in the trends of the day and the approach at each moment seems preferable to that of the moment preceding. From a practical standpoint it may be possible to bridge disparate ethical constructs. For example, in the wait for solid organ transplantation, a bicameral approach could alternatively accommodate time waiting and urgency. Selection of older patients and those with a past substance abuse history could be limited to those with the best prognosis for compliance and posttransplantation quality of life. Living organ donors and families of nonliving donors could receive incentives of a noncoercive nature that would stimulate participation without sacrificing altruism. Creative approaches are needed to improve fairness and efficacy in solid organ transplantation.
A quiet revolution in organ transplant ethics
A quiet revolution is occurring in the field of transplantation. Traditionally, transplants have involved solid organs such as the kidney, heart and liver which are transplanted to prevent recipients from dying. Now transplants are being done of the face, hand, uterus, penis and larynx that aim at improving a recipient's quality of life. The shift away from saving lives to seeking to make them better requires a shift in the ethical thinking that has long formed the foundation of organ transplantation. The addition of new forms of transplants requires doctors, patients, regulators and the public to rethink the risk and benefit ratio represented by trade-offs between saving life, extending life and risking the loss of life to achieve improvements in the quality of life.