Ethical Issues In Organ Donation

Organ transplantation has been around for a very long time, interest within organ transplantation dates back to somewhere around the nineteenth century. But it wasn 't until a French surgeon named Alexis Carrel that developed a method of joining blood vessels together, that was when the transplantation of organs became a more realistic prospect around the world. The basic definition for organ transplantation would be the surgical removal of an organ from one person and its transfer to another person, some well known organs that can be transplanted would be the kidney, pancreas, liver, heart, lung, and the small intestine. Modern organ transplantation carries a high chance for long term survival for the recipient, an organ transplant however …show more content…
The main issue dealing with organ transplantation would be the problem of organ supply versus organ demand and the appropriate allocation (distribution) of available organs, this ends up dealing with the risks and benefits of organ donation from living donors, the appropriate and acceptable methods to increase organ donation from the deceased through the adoption of the principle of 'presumed consent ' which means that, unless otherwise specified, a person is presumed to have consented to organ donation in the case of their accidental death (Ethical issues in organ transplantation). The last example of an ethically problematic case relating to organ transplantation is where the recipient is chosen from the basis of race, religion, or ethnic group. For example in one case the family of a brain-dead man agreed to donate his organs, but they insisted that because of the man 's racist beliefs, the recipients must be white. Although the organs were allocated accordingly, Florida passed a law prohibiting patients or families from placing such restrictions on donation. This one example shows how a racial issue can stumble upon organ transplantation (The ethics of organ donation by living donors). In the end even with all the different ethical issues that are reported against organ transplantation, I would say that organ transplantation is a vital and important part within the medical world. This is because they help save / improve thousands of people 's lives, and the advancements in technology make them easier, safer, more reliable, and lastly more successful each year, which overtime will end up overruling most of the issues they have