With just a click of a mouse on donatelife.net or selecting “yes” to organ donation when applying for a driver’s license, one can simply register to become an organ donor. Organ donation is viewed as a heroic act and is highly encouraged in the United States because in total, there are about 120,000 Americans waiting for organ transplants. To understand the eligibility of organ donations, one needs to have knowledge of the types of death and its impact on the person. Of the 2.2 million people who die in America each year, only a few die under circumstances that make them eligible to be organ donors. It is common that most deceased organ donors are pronounced brain dead. In the U.S., less than one percent of all deaths are brain deaths, so only
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According to Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “Everyone has the right to life....” (un.org). The brain-death criteria violates a patient’s right to life in that it ends their life sooner because once a patient is pronounced “brain death,” the doctor “pulls the plug” to end life support that was provided for the patient. After the patient is declared “brain dead,” the doctor must act quickly and remove the organs in order to preserve them for transplantation to those in need. By doing so, the patient’s right to life is violated because the doctor is the one who stops the patient’s life support and immediately dissects the patient to obtain their vital organs. In addition, using the brain death criteria as a basis for organ eligibility violates human rights in that it belittles the lives of those who are brain dead. For example, the instant the patient is announced brain dead, they are no longer viewed as a human being. Instead, they are seen as a resource, containing organs for those in need of a transplant. This is immoral, not only because it fails to view the patient as a human being, but it also sees them as a provider, responsible to replace other’s organs with their own. As a result, using the brain death criterion as a determinate for one’s qualification to donate organs is immoral because it violates human
According to Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “Everyone has the right to life....” (un.org). The brain-death criteria violates a patient’s right to life in that it ends their life sooner because once a patient is pronounced “brain death,” the doctor “pulls the plug” to end life support that was provided for the patient. After the patient is declared “brain dead,” the doctor must act quickly and remove the organs in order to preserve them for transplantation to those in need. By doing so, the patient’s right to life is violated because the doctor is the one who stops the patient’s life support and immediately dissects the patient to obtain their vital organs. In addition, using the brain death criteria as a basis for organ eligibility violates human rights in that it belittles the lives of those who are brain dead. For example, the instant the patient is announced brain dead, they are no longer viewed as a human being. Instead, they are seen as a resource, containing organs for those in need of a transplant. This is immoral, not only because it fails to view the patient as a human being, but it also sees them as a provider, responsible to replace other’s organs with their own. As a result, using the brain death criterion as a determinate for one’s qualification to donate organs is immoral because it violates human