Ethics Governance
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| Article - Abstract. To view full article click on the article title. | |
CBHD: Transplanting HIV Positive Organs Into HIV Positive Patients- by Gregory W. Rutecki It would be refreshing to critique an organ donation plan that would increase supply without simultaneously violating ethical constraints. The law of supply and demand has imposed unforgiving rules on solid organ transplantation. As a result, there has been a flurry of activity aimed at the problem. Unfortunately, efforts to date have been disturbing in a number of ways. First, there were asystolic protocols, characterized by ethicist Renee Fox as “an ignoble form of cannibalism.” In these protocols, the “dead donor rule” (i.e., organs may only be taken from patients who have died; patients may not be killed to allow for organ procurement) was challenged by a “gerrymandered” definition of death (two minutes without a heartbeat). That definition, not new to transplantation, was initially maligned (the University of Pittsburgh Protocol in the mid 1990s, for example), but has now, with minor changes, been accepted by many. The engendered confusion inhabited contingent efforts to retrieve organs from anencephalic infants. Donors who were dying and donors who were dead were thus treated the same. An increase in supply occurred, but at the expense of donor dignity. In other ways—at least in its early stages—living, adult liver transplantation stumbled over ethical hurdles of its own. Full Article: http://www.cbhd.org/resources/healthcare/rutecki_2004-08-27.htm |
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2006 Ethics-Governance.com |
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