Stop letting organ failure kill our communitues

The basic ethical principle involved in organ transplantation is whether a person has a right to enjoy life on the basis of organs belonging to others. Once we choose to answer this question in the affirmative we concede that we are prepared to inflict harm on others in order to improve our health or to prolong our life. Thus we sacrifice the long cherished principle of non-maleficence in medicine. Whether the organs come through donation, gift, or sale is a matter of individual choice and circumstances. Even if a person gives his organ willingly and without any thought as to recompense he suffers harm to his body.

It is a fact that in every gift or donation some kind of expectation is involved, though it may not be a material consideration. In the case of live organ donors the organ is donated to a particular person who, in fact, may not be the neediest or the most deserving bearing in mind the seriousness of illness; period of waiting; age; family circumstances; capability to afford post-transplantation therapy, and other criteria. This means that the act of donation is tainted with considerations of personal relationship, choice, and preference. In other words the donation is not a candid act of altruism or human solidarity, but rather is motivated by the desire to save the life of a near and dear one, which may, at times, be to secure one’s own comfort and future. Such urges and motives also constitute considerations other than altruism since they are aimed at pleasure and fulfilment. Even a donation made to a stranger is not without considerations of possible benefit. Such cases may be motivated by the desire to discharge a religious duty; to correct a wrong done in the past; to gain mental or moral satisfaction; or to be seen as a good Samaritan.

Once the practice of organ donation by the genetically related and also by strangers, based on altruism, has been accepted as ethically sound the following components of organ removal stand morally vindicated: