Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
arguments for and against organ donation
debate in organ donation
moral issues about organ transplants
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: arguments for and against organ donation
There has been a lot of debate concerning brain death within organ donations. This means whether the person is actually alive or dead when the doctors decide to harvest the organs. Some people and even organizations argue why it is they believe an individual is alive during the process while others argue why the donor isn’t alive. This essay shows the different positions of people and organizations regarding brain death. Dr. Paul A. Byrne, a neonatologist and a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, claims that brain death is not true death for a person, doctors just want to harvest the organs so they claim a person is dead when they’re really not: “Patients are declared brain dead in order to harvest their organs.” The true death is the removal of the organs, Byrne says: “Every donor is killed in the process.” Byrne also says that doctors aren’t able to take the organs out of someone who is truly dead because organ damage occurs after circulation has stopped. Therefore, the person is still alive when the removal of organs takes place. Byrne supports his claim, that brain death isn’t true death, by providing evidence about a young man from Oklahoma, Zach Dunlap, who was declared brain dead. However, his cousin who was one of his nurses, recognized a response after four hours of being declared dead by scraping a knife on the bottom of his foot. Dunlap wasn’t truly dead although he had been declared dead. He even said he could hear everything the doctors were saying but couldn’t yell for help due to his head injury. By telling the story of a person who had this happen to him, Byrne is showing that there is actual evidence that people who are declared brain dead might not actually be dead and that doctors should be better at checking whether a person is truly brain dead or not. The story of Zach Dunlap appeared on newscasts, websites, and shows; such as NBC News, the Today
In his article “Opt-out organ donation without presumptions”, Ben Saunders is writing to defend an opt-out organ donation system in which cadaveric organs can be used except in the case that the deceased person has registered an objection and has opted-out of organ donation. Saunders provides many arguments to defend his stance and to support his conclusion. This paper will discuss the premises and elements of Saunders’ argument and how these premises support his conclusion. Furthermore, this paper will discuss the effectiveness of Saunders’ argument, including its strengths and weaknesses. Lastly, it will discuss how someone with an opposing view might respond to his article,
Jahi McMath is a 13-year-old girl living in Oakland, CA who was declared brain dead by multiple neurologists more than three months ago. Jahi was declared brain-dead December 12th after barriers during surgery a few days earlier to remove her tonsils, adenoids, and uvula at Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland. At least three neurologists confirmed that Jahi was unable to breathe on her own, had no blood flow to her brain, and had no sign of electrical activity in her brain. Moreover, a court order kept Jahi's body on a ventilator while independent experts could be brought in to confirm the results (Wells, 2014). Even so, the McMath family was able to secure the release of Jahi's body through the county coroner, who issued a death certificate, and have been keeping her on a ventilator at an undisclosed facility ever since. This all occurred after Children’s Hospital released Jahi due to her severe brain damage along with the probability of the hospital receiving profit from discharging Jahi before her or her family were ready for her to be released (Johnson and Rhodes, 2010, p. 61).
When a pregnant woman is declared brain dead and she is keeping alive to have the child, it seems like the right thing to do. The other way to think about it, is the dignity of the mother's diseased body. When a person is declared dead, in our culture, the body is treated with respect and dignity. When you look at these cases, the mother is kept alive to sustain life for a child that might not even make it, the body loses all respect for the life it once had, and it challenges the notion of the idea of brain death.
7. Spielman, B. (ed.) 1996. Organ and Tissue Donation; Ethical, legal, and policy issues. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Howards, Lawrence A. “Ethics of Organ Donation.” JSOnline Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 20 June 1999. p4. 30 November 2003. http://www.jsonline.com/alive/column/jun99/howard62099.asp>
The human body; it starts off as a single cell, and grows into a complex machine made of seventy eight distinct organs, two hundred and six bones, and millions of nerves that all communicate with each other to regulate body processes and keep the machine alive and healthy. This seemingly perfect system undergoes countless attacks every day, and manages to recover from most, although occasionally, it can not. Diseases such as Cystic Fibrosis and Coronary Artery Disease, or abnormalities and defects such as biliary atresia, can all disrupt the function of human organs (“Transplant Australia”, n.d ). Thankfully, through radical advancements in modern medicine, organ transplants are a safe and highly viable option to restore the human body’s perfect harmony. No matter the reason for organ failure, once it occurs, the patient’s journey to receiving a new organ begins. Through the matching of organs, the process and the complications that come with it, the ethical issues, and trials of new advancements, the journey is a long one.
According to Pozgar (2016), the demand for organs and tissues for use in transplantation far exceeds the available supply. This is largely due to the increasing success rate of organ transplantation. This disparity between the supply and demand for viable organs has created an ethical dilemma. Since, there are not enough organs to help everyone, it must be decided who will, in effect, live or die. Those charged with making those decisions attempt to use a set of guidelines to determine who the beneficiaries will be. However, when a decision results in the suffering and/or death of another, there are going to be ethical questions.
Yearly, thousands die from not receiving the organs needed to help save their lives; Anthony Gregory raises the question to why organ sales are deemed illegal in his piece “Why legalizing organ sales would help to save lives, end violence”, which was published in The Atlantic in November of 2011. Anthony Gregory has written hundreds of articles for magazines and newspapers, amongst the hundreds of articles is his piece on the selling of organs. Gregory states “Donors of blood, semen, and eggs, and volunteers for medical trials, are often compensated. Why not apply the same principle to organs? (p 451, para 2)”. The preceding quote allows and proposes readers to ponder on the thought of there being an organ
Nurses’ attitudes, experience and knowledge and unit routines should may significantly affect the identification and care of possible donors and their families (Bidigare and Oermann 1991, Collins 2004, Flode and Forsberg 2009). Relatives’ considerate of the brain death concept, their perceptions of the quality of the attention of the probable donor and the person making the call’s expertise for organ donation is the factors influencing the relatives’ organ donation decision
Major Points: Organ donation myths, Recipient Selection, Legislation and Policy, Current Trend, Let’s Pay Organ Donors.
Once a person is brain dead they are said to be legally dead and the time and date of death is reflected on their death certificate. In South Africa it is not stated that doctors can withdraw life support once a patient is declared brain dead due to ethical debates (Fleischer, 2003). There have been some cases where people have been declared brain dead but then regain some brain activity (Greenberg, 2014). This h...
The process of finding if a patient is brain dead can be complex and long but is necessary to decide what will happen afterwards. There are many tests to define brain death in a patient and all of them are necessary even multiple times. If a person is successfully determined brain dead, the option of organ donation is an option that I would be in favor of because it could help make a good situation out of a bad one. Brain death can be a long and sad process for the family or friends of anyone who has been diagnosed definitively but finding the good in the situation, like organ donation, can help to conquer the feeling of losing someone.
The main advantage of this medical surgery is that it is conceived for the purpose of saving people’s lives – one organ can save eight lives. For a recipient, it means it’s a second chance at life of not having to be dependent on expensive routine treatments to survive and live a normal lifestyle. The family of a deceased donor could take consolation thinking that their loved ones did not die in vain, rather they continue to live on other people’s life. The only downsides to organ donation would be the misconceptions. Families are often believe that the donor’s bodies were kept on life support while removing the tissues which is not entirely the case. Surgeons do not remove organs or tissues unless he is pronounced as brain-dead or dead. Another downside of this procedure is the fact that the donor can’t get to choose who receives the organ, however, there are organizations that arrange a meeting between the recipient and the donor though this can occur on rare cases (Emory Health Care). This study will review the practices of organ donation and its future medical advancements.
One of the most important and prevalent issues in healthcare discussed nowadays is the concern of the organ donation shortage. As the topic of organ donation shortages continues to be a growing problem, the government and many hospitals are also increasingly trying to find ways to improve the number of organ donations. In the United States alone, at least 6000 patients die each year while on waiting lists for new organs (Petersen & Lippert-Rasmussen, 2011). Although thousands of transplant candidates die from end-stage diseases of vital organs while waiting for a suitable organ, only a fraction of eligible organ donors actually donate. Hence, the stark discrepancy in transplantable organ supply and demand is one of the reasons that exacerbate this organ donation shortage (Parker, Winslade, & Paine, 2002). In the past, many people sought the supply of transplantable organs from cadaver donors. However, when many ethical issues arose about how to determine whether someone is truly dead by either cardiopulmonary or neurological conditions (Tong, 2007), many healthcare professionals and transplant candidates switched their focus on obtaining transplantable organs from living donors instead. As a result, in 2001, the number of living donors surpassed the number of cadaver donors for the first time (Tong, 2007).
The question arises whether a person’s claim to determine what transpires to their bodies afore and postmortem should be respected. Traditional medical ethics lean toward preserving the rights of the person. This translates into the act of not harvesting organs from the living or deceased unless valid consent has been obtained. The basis of this ethical policy lies in the deontological theories that were established by our philosophical forefathers, such as, John Locke and John Stuart Mill. Refusing to acknowledge the individual rights of a potential donor; the doctor, or medical facility is committing an act of ethical betrayal of the donor, the family, the institution of medicine and the law. Thus, the individual rights of the donor must be upheld to the highest ethical degree.