Heather Organ Donation Case Study

In the United States a lot of people are faced with the choice of something that occurs after death. Thinking of the afterlife is scary for some people but it is a decision that needs to be decided. The choice is organ donation to be a donor or to not be a donor, this can be decided by a personal say or a family decision. In the case of Heather Semans, it was a decision made by her family to donate an organ to someone who needed it. Growing up Heather struggled both physically and socially due to being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the young age of 18 months. From the diagnosis she then suffered from seizures, which inhibited her in a lot of ways. Heather’s parents, Jan and Mike, saw the struggle their daughter had and shared that “Heather …show more content…
It is evident that it saves life due to the fact one person can help many others. A statistic from Organdonor.gov is that one organ donor can save up to eight lives, (Why Organ, Eye, and Tissue Donation?, n.d.). That statistic shows that not only is one person being saved but seven additional people are being saved as well. A person or family deciding like the case of Heather Semans to donate an organ to benefit another is humane because it saves more than one life. Heather Semans’ life caused another person to live. Her liver was donated to a local man who was in desperate need of one. Although her liver was the only viable organ to be able to donate, the act of it showed humanity for another. Although Heather Semans did not make the decision to donate her organ on her own, she still was able to save someone’s live. Saving the life of another person fits into the definition of humane because it shows the act of compassion and sympathy for another person in …show more content…
It can cause a ripple effect for those around a person. When one sees the act of humanity by donating an organ, it could cause another person to want to do the same. For Heather’s parents, they put on an information session about promoting organ donation and from that session many that attended signed up to be an organ donor. This matches the definition of humane because it shows that other people had compassion to choose to be an organ donor. The option of choosing to be an organ donor is something that can be a difficult decision but the beauty is that it can make a difference. It can make a difference in the person that receives the organ because their life can start anew due to a new organ. Many people that are in need of an organ transplant live an arduous life because they are in need of something that is very scarce. The scarcity of organ donation is quite large but if people saw the act of humanity that they would be doing, more people would choose to donate. A lot of people look at the negative aspects of organ donation and worry but with proper knowledge it can cause a ripple effect for those who are opposed. Statistic about organ donation concluded that, “In 2014, more than 8,500 deceased donors made possible approximately 24,000 organ transplants. In addition, there were nearly 6,000 transplants from living donors,”(Statistics, n.d.). This statistic shows that a person doesn’t have to be deceased to make