Every human life is precious at every stage and in every circumstance. To preserve this commonly accepted moral principle, society is responsible for promoting human rights as well as preventing every threat to the progress of individual life. One of modern medicine’s achievements, organ transplantation, serves to promote the interests and dignity of patients while providing others a second chance to re-experience life for themselves. However, living in a modern society that faces increasing organ shortage and growing demand, an average of 21 patients on the waiting list die each day before receiving an organ transplant (recent statistics report released by Donate Life America). Now a new focus of modern medicine attempts to not just aim for the
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Because patients in PVS are not conscious and cannot make autonomous decisions such as choosing to live or die at the moment as well as in the course of time, many critics would suggest the employment of the two criteria in assessing personhood is not compatible. However, as previously mentioned above, the analysis requires examining the subject and his or her mental capabilities in both the past and future circumstances. Upon investigation, one should inquire these following questions concerning the condition of a patient before the occurrence of permanent brain death: Has the patient ever been in the state of consciousness? Has the patient ever gained the experience of making autonomous decisions? Any patient in PVS, at some point in their lives, “were” capable of experiencing consciousness and reaching the point of making autonomous decisions. Thus, they are distinguishable from anencephalic infants in the sense that their past still retains their identity as human
Because patients in PVS are not conscious and cannot make autonomous decisions such as choosing to live or die at the moment as well as in the course of time, many critics would suggest the employment of the two criteria in assessing personhood is not compatible. However, as previously mentioned above, the analysis requires examining the subject and his or her mental capabilities in both the past and future circumstances. Upon investigation, one should inquire these following questions concerning the condition of a patient before the occurrence of permanent brain death: Has the patient ever been in the state of consciousness? Has the patient ever gained the experience of making autonomous decisions? Any patient in PVS, at some point in their lives, “were” capable of experiencing consciousness and reaching the point of making autonomous decisions. Thus, they are distinguishable from anencephalic infants in the sense that their past still retains their identity as human