Choose one of the legal/moral issues regarding end-of-life issues addressed in this week’s readings/videos, and explain the two (or more) sides of this issue. Why is the issue controversial?
The legal issue I chose to discuss based off of this week reading is organ transplants. Organ transplants can be living or deceased. Organ transplants are meant to help a person whenever their organs start to fail a person who signed up to be an organ donor can donate organs to a person in need. Organs that are usually transmitted are heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas, and intestines. Other organs that you can transmit are blood, bone marrow, bone, tendons, corneas, heart valves, veins, and skin.
The issue with organ transmission is that you can experience transplant rejection of the new organ and a lack of organs and tissue for transplant has become a problem. According to Harbeck (2011), “Today, 90 percent of patients survive for a year after the transplant, and 72 percent survive for five years (‘Heart Transplant,’2008). Many patients live for more than a decade following an organ transplant. In 2006 2,192 patients received heart transplants; the following year 2,210 patients received transplants (“Heart Transplants: Statistics,’ 2009).” Organ transmission is most successful because of similar genetics and emotional ties. In some countries, buying and selling organs is legal. Another form “of organ acquisition is forced donorship. Up until a few years ago, most Chinese organ donations came from executed prisoners” (Harbeck, 2011).
Organ transmission is considered both immoral and illegal to deliberately kill one person for the benefit of another, it has been critical that the donation of organs from individuals who would not otherwise survive without them occur only after the death of the donor, which is the so-called “dead donor rule” (Quick, 2008).
Reference:
Harbeck, K. M. (2021). Legal and Ethical Issues of Life and Death. Salem Press Encyclopedia.
An ever-increasing disparity between the demand for vital organs for transplantation and the number of available donors presents challenges to the medical community. Persistent barriers to donation include public concerns regarding definitions of death; c, Quick, G., Bell, M. D., Kerridge, I. H., Mandell, M. S., Brannigan, M. C., Fost, N., Arnold, R. M., Norman, G. V., Devita, M., Culver, C., Orlowski, J., & Seltzer, D. (2008, July 22). Controversies in organ donation: Donation after Cardiac Death. Perioperative Nursing Clinics. Retrieved December 3, 2022, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1556793108000491
