1. Two paragraphs of not less than 15-sentence each discussing the board question. Use one paragraph to discuss this ethical and legal challenge, and use the second paragraph to defend your posture. (60 points)
2. You must comment on at least one other student discussion post. This response must contain not less than 10 sentences. (30 points)
We talked about the medical and legal issues regarding organ transplants. Currently, there are two different types of organ donor lists; there is an adult list and a children’s list. There are different rules and regulations for both of these lists. Obviously, there is a longer wait and more scarcity for the children’s list. Children as young as eight years old can successfully receive adult organs for transplant, but there are rules that prohibit this.
Do you think children should or should not be allowed to receive adult organs if they are compatible? Why, or why not?
As you respond to your classmates, discuss the rationale for your position.
Please include the name of the person or question to which you are replying in the subject line. For example, “Tom’s response to Susan’s comment.”
ALSO REPLY TO ANOTHER STUDENTS COMMENT BELOW
Ashlee:
There are a ton of legal and ethical issues that come along with the word transplant. There are two types of transplant one being a gift meaning in legal terms “legally binding voluntary transfer of something from the donor to the donee without payment” (Glazier, 2018) . As you can see from the statement above that when donating an organ, you cannot be paid for the service, this is strictly volunteering. I think one of the biggest ethical issues that comes with organ donation is what makes someone higher on the donation list than another individual? Seriously, how does one say well this person should be higher because they are younger and have more life ahead of them, or this one is lower because of their past medical history, or even this person can has a lot of money and can pay to be moved up the list. To me this is one of the biggest ethical issues out there with transplants. Yes, there is a lot of legal obligations that come with transplant but ethically what makes someone more receiving than another. I think that this is the major issue with transplants.
When it comes to the issue of children receiving adult organs, I think it is okay to be done. I think this because of the organ can save someone’s life why should it be considered the age? Organs are a fascinating feature of our body and if all testing comes back that the organ could be compatible age shouldn’t matter. If the organ being harvest was from a individual who themselves of family agreed to donate the organ a child’s family should be happy that there child is going to hopefully have a full life. There are also some programs where you can find out who donated the organ and be in contact with the family which some people would see as seeing the family member live on. There can be a lot of opinions about this issue and I can’t wait to see what my classmates say about it.
References
Glazier, A. K. (2018, August 13). Organ Donation and the Principles of Gift Law. Retrieved from Clinical Journal of American Society of Nephrology: https://cjasn.asnjournals.org/content/13/8/1283