KARON MILLER | |
|PHILOSOPHY 333 |
|ASSIGNMENT 1 |
|APPILCATION OF NORMATIVE ETHICAL THEORIES |
|CASE 2.3 |
|Imagine that you are a physician and one of your patients is a four-year-old girl in severe renal failure. She is failing to thrive|
|on dialysis and it has become evident that without a kidney transplant in the near future she will not survive. The chance of a |
|successful transplant is roughly ninety percent if the kidney comes from a close relative whose tissue type is virtually identical |
|to that of the recipient. A successful transplant is far less probable if the tissue match is less close, even if the kidney is |
|from a near relative. And implanting a poorly matched kidney from a relative holds out no greater probability of success than the |
|implantation of an equally poor match from a cadaver. The probability of getting a good tissue match from a cadaver is lower than |
|getting one from within the family. You inform the child's family (her parents and two older siblings); all agree to undergo |
|tissue-typing to see if any of the family members are good candidates for donation. The test reveals that the child's father is an |
|excellent match. All the other family members are poor matches. You are about to contact the family with the good news when the |
|father arrives and asks to speak with you about the test results. You tell him, but much to your surprise, he begins to cry