Organ Donation Gift of Life

Organ Donation

Gift of Life

What if you can extend another person's life, would you and could you do it even if it means risking your own life? Organ donation is removing specific tissues of the human body for transplanting or grafting into another person. 1 Both cadavers and living person can be a donor, but both also have to fulfill certain criterion to eligibly donate a part of them. Bioethics, politics and personal issues have arisen in concern of organ donation.

At St. Vincent Hospital Staten Island, a 9-year-old girl named Tiffany was pronounced as brain dead. Her mother, Surangni Gunaratne, cried out in devastation. For the next few days, people in the hospital helped her accept the fact that her child was gone. Kathleen Atkinson who works New York Organ Donor Network was the most persistent of all. She persuaded Tiffany's parents to donate their daughter's liver and kidneys saving the lives of three strangers. 2 unique ethical dilemma has resulted from organ donation by living donors. Physicians must risk the life of a healthy person to save or improve the life of a patient and transplantation surgeons have therefore been cautious in using this resource. 3 new area of ethics, bioethics, have been at the forefront of modern clinical science since mid-70's. Deontological issues, pioneered by Paul Ramsey and Leon Kass, raise the primary issue regarding the morality of organ donation which is semantical in nature. They debated over the definition of life, death, human and the body. Roma, a religious group, opposes organ donation based on religious grounds, although, this is not true for most of the world's religion which supports organ donation as a form of charity which greatly benefits the community. There are a lot of issues which are concern about patient autonomy, living wills and guardianship. These issues make involuntary organ donation close to impossible, but for issues regarding public heath, the interest of the state could overrule any patient right to autonomy.

Cloning has also been a particular concern for deontological issues and is still very much controversial, especially if the clone is made with the express purpose of destroying it for harvesting. Though, with this science, there is zero percent chance of transplant rejection. There is also a new field in transplantation that has also been debated. Xenotransplantation, which transplants animal organs to humans, have raised concern for some animal rights groups which is against sacrificing animals.

There is a waiting list for legal organs to be donated but for indeterminate lengths of time. The fear of literally dying while still waiting to be a recipient has pushed people to deal with the black market. The "black market organ donation" relies upon the ends justifying the means. This is discussed in teleological and utilitarian issues. Concern also focused on the imbalance of the trade because the market is for only those who can afford, therefore only gives chance for the well-off. The black market has been referred to as the transplant trade outside of the United States. Legalization of the international organ trade would lead to increased supply, lowering prices. Therefore the poor might be able to afford such organs as well.

Bioethics is also concerned in issues of exploitation of the donor. Exploitation arguments generally come from two main areas, physical and financial exploitation. Physical exploitation argues that the operations are risky and they take place in third-world countries or what they say "black alleys" which adds to the risk. Although operations can be made safe, still there remains some threat and risk for the donor. Financial exploitation on the other hand says that donors are not paid enough, especially those from the Indian subcontinent and Africa. This argument assumes that there exists some financial amount that does indeed constitute what is enough and the high prices and profits may be partly attributed to the black-market status of the transaction. 1