1- Presumed Consent?
COLLAPSE
Art Caplan’s article, as well as Munson & other sources, raise the issue of whether we should shift from an “O
and “Opt Out” scheme. As the highlights from Caplan’s Hastings Center article point out:
•Nearly 100,000 people are on waiting lists for organ transplants in the United States, but about a dozen of the
lack of organs.
•Rationing is unavoidable in organ transplantation, but the system for allocating organs must be just and fair.
•Value judgments and economic considerations affect who is admitted to waiting lists and who gets available o
the justice and fairness of the allocation system.
•A promising option for increasing the supply is a policy of presumed consent—unless they state otherwise, p
donate their organs when they die.
After reading Caplan’s piece you might want to follow up with this article before commenting:
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/presumed_consent_not_answer_to_solving_organ_sho
What do you think? ! ( 200 words)
2-Two great articles and lots of issues this week – Annas’ conclusion about how to very simply ‘conserve resou
Hamel’s critique of “social worth” is very interesting, Care to share your thoughts? ( 225 words).
sources for #2
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1645985/
Hamel-Organ allocation is on the file
3-“Regulated Sales” Attachment
COLLAPSE
Along with the NPR show posted in the Weekly Assignment Page, here is another link to consider regarding t
Comment on either in a reply to this thread…
People Can Sell Sperm; Why Not Kidneys?
Doctor Says Regulated Sales Would Address Organ Shortage — But Foes Fear Exploitation
The link will also let you check out a video that has most of the content of this article — check it out!
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Health/story?id=2977619&page=1
ABC News
People Can Sell Sperm; Why Not Kidneys?
Doctor Says Regulated Sales Would Address Organ Shortage — But Foes Fear Exploitation
By JOHN McKENZIE
March 31, 2007 – It is not a solution he proposes lightly — indeed, it is among the most controversial ideas in m
Matas, president of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, says it’s now time to develop a regulated sy
That’s right: Allow people to sell one of their kidneys to ease the growing shortage of donated organs.
Matas encourages critics to do the math: There are now more than 70,000 Americans who’ve lost the use of t
epidemic of diabetes. But only about 16,000 kidneys are donated each year. So most patients rely on dialysis
their blood. It can keep them alive, but not for as long as a real kidney.
The average wait time for a donated kidney in the early 1980’s was less than a year. Today, it’s more than five
Each year, about 5,000 patients die waiting.
“It sounds like the wrong thing to do to be buying kidneys,” Matas says, “until you start realizing unless we can
going to have a continuation of the situation where patients are dying on dialysis and their quality of life is wor
Matas argues that people can already buy and sell human sperm, eggs, and blood. Why draw the line at kidne
And because a transplant saves so much money in long-term medical costs, Matas says the government and
afford to pay each donor one fixed price.
“When all is said and done, the package could be worth $60,000 to $70,000 and still be cost-neutral to the he
a surgeon at the University of Minnesota.
Obstacles to such a plan are huge. Not only are organ sales against the law — in 1984, Congress banned fina
donation — virtually every major medical association opposes the idea, including Matas’ own transplant societ
Critics argue the system would be abused, and the poor would be exploited. They point to Iran, Pakistan and
are sold on the black market.Dr. Francis Delmonico, a transplant surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, argues: “There are plenty of
poor who have sold their kidney, and I can assure you that what has happened is that they remain destitute, th
remain with one less kidney.”
Matas, who frequently debates Delmonico on the subject at meetings of the Transplant Society, replies: “I thin
unregulated systems which have failed in other countries from the regulated system which I am advocating.”
His proposal, published in several medical journals, emphasizes that the kidney sales should be strictly contro
insurance companies, with no middle men or brokers.
Those willing to sell a kidney would get a full physical and psychological evaluation and receive long-term follo
Matas is calling on Congress, and his colleagues, to allow a pilot project to see the effects of regulated kidney
surveys showing public support for the idea.
With a growing number of Americans dying on the waiting list, he says now is the time to try.
(200 words for # 3)
4-Journal #1 (300 words).
https://blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2016/07/28/is-gaming-the-transplant-list-an-ethical-dilemma/. Please u
sources
5-Journal #2.( 250 words).please use this link for this journal
and also this scenario on journal 2-Robbing the Dead?( scenario 2 page 362)
6- Who plays God (200 words). please use this link.to show if organs were for sale who will play God.( 200 wo
More sources:
Intervention and Reflection: Basic Issues in Bioethics, Concise Edition, 1e
Ronald Munson
Read the Chapter 8 Briefing Session (Organ Transplants & Scarce Resources) and at least one Case Presen
Decision Scenario