...Week 1 Organ donation is a significant health care issue in which ethical and legal concepts can be applied. Many people can benefit greatly from organ transplants in terms of extent and quality of life, but usually the demand exceeds the supply and this issue can leads to ethical dilemma with regard to who lives?, who dies? and who decides? (Pozgar, 2013). Therefore, for healthcare providers the ethical issue arise when they have to make decisions with regard to who lives and dies making for them the decision really hard even when there is guidelines to follow. On the other hand, another salient ethical and legal concerns associated with this issue can be the costs related to some organ transplants in which they are very expensive. Therefore, many questions raise regarding how best to provide more organs, how to reasonably distribute limited resources, and whether all transplants should be covered by public funds. Another questions that raised from this issue is; who gets priority? For instance, will be the priority based on the severity of a person's illness or their age? (Pozgar, 2013). In addition, will money and social status influence this decision? Therefore, a rich person would get a new organ and a poor person refused? For all these reasons, there are many issues arising from organ transplantation that have to be managed and solved considering the well being of the patients. In organ donations, the ethical and legal issues have to be addressed keeping in mind...
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...medical treatments getting more accessible to public, there has been a scarcity of organs for transplantation for the past few decades. In order to meet the enormous demand, alternative sources have been adopted from condemned prisoners to supplement the supply. In particular, the practice of harvesting the organs of condemned prisoners for use in transplant operations has become an open secret in China. As the number whom she executes has decreased by 75% in recent years, shortage problem arises for a medical system that relying on such flow of organs. In fact, use of executed prisoners' organs for medical transplantation has always received bitter criticism from the international community. What highlight the problem are the...
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...is a welcome event that can alleviate pain and suffering and can sometimes save the life of another. A simple decision to become an organ donor can save lives and improve the quality of life of recipients. Receiving a needed organ facilitates a restoration of physiological functioning and often means the difference between life and death. Many people have misconceptions regarding organ donation and simply do not understand the facts. Some do not realize the vast numbers on waiting lists and how simply becoming a donor could save the life of another. Others may be apprehensive about making a decision about their bodies after death. In this paper we explain the origins and history of organ donation, the process by which organs are donated, the ethical implications behind organ donation and discuss many of the proposed solutions to solve the organ shortage issue. HISTORY OF ORGAN DONATION The origins of organ donation arose with several experimental transplants. The first successful transplant was a bone transplant in 1878, which used a bone from a cadaver. (14) Experimentally, bone marrow transplants began by giving patients bone marrow orally after meals to cure leukemia. This had no effect, but later when they used intravenous injections to treat aplastic anemia, there was some effect (14). One development that largely aided organ donation was the discovery of blood groups in the early 20th century. The first recorded kidney transplant was in 1909 and was a rabbit...
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... AUTISTIC SELF ADVOCACY NETWORK POLICY BRIEF • MARCH 2013 Organ Transplantation and People with I/DD: A Review of Research, Policy and Next Steps Ari Ne’eman, Autistic Self Advocacy Network Steven Kapp, University of California, Los Angeles Caroline Narby, Autistic Self Advocacy Network Introduction Since organ transplantation was introduced as a viable treatment option, people with disabilities have faced significant barriers to accessing the life-saving procedure. The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibited discrimination on the basis of disability by entities receiving federal funds, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 extended this protection more broadly across other areas of society. However, it has historically been difficult to enforce federal civil rights law within the area of medical decision-making. Due to the lack of medical knowledge on the part of the average patient or family member, people with I/DD often face little recourse when denied transplantation or even referral for consideration for such a procedure. In the last twenty years, some progress has been made on this issue, yet the need for further action on the part of activists and policymakers remains exceptionally clear. Background … it has historically been difficult to enforce federal civil rights law within the area of medical decision-making. People with I/DD and Organ Transplantation: A History of Discrimination In 1995, Sandra Jensen, a 34-year old...
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...Organ Donation and its Impact on HIM and Documentation Kathleen Gallagher Rasmussen College Author Note This research is being submitted on November 25, 2012, for Kathleen M. Gallagher’s M243/HIM2410 Health Information Law and Ethics course. Organ Donation and its Impact on HIM and Documentation Health information professionals provide many basic and supporting functions that are critical in health care. One of the major job requirements is the professional’s responsibility for the patients’ legal record. The American Health Information Management Association and the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) set guidelines for ensuring the quality, integrity, privacy, and security of a patient’s Protected Health Information. Health Information Management (HIM) professionals must have an ethical character, and be responsible for overseeing adequate and accurate health records. Organ and tissue donation and trans-plantation is an area of bioethics that has regulations to guide the HIM professional in making sure the legal health record in complete. Understanding the HIPAA privacy rules and regulations for organ and tissue transplantation will help the HIM professional when needing to receive or disclose health information. These laws are set in order to protect physicians, patients, families, as well as the health care facility. Principles of ethical decision making have an impact on choices patients and their families make regarding this...
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...Introduction Defining brain death has continued to be a highly controversial phenomenon in our society today. In fact, it was recently described as being “at once well settled and persistently unresolved” (Truog 273). Traditionally death involves the “permanent stopping of the heart and cessation of breathing” (Fins and Laureys 1). However, with the advent of the artificial ventilator invented by Bjorn Ibsen from Denmark, a patient’s breathing and heartbeat could be continued, even in the absence of brain function (Fins and Laureys 1). Once physicians diagnose a patient as brain dead, the next step is often the procedure of organ transplantation. There is a multiplicity of views on brain death and subsequent organ transplantation, with each culture’s beliefs shaping its own medical practices; these differing stances often lead to ethical debates. Background Brain death was first described in the 1950s by two French physicians, Mollart and Goulon, who termed it as “coma depasse,” a state beyond coma and differentiated it from “coma prolonged,” a continual vegetative state (Ganapathi 10). The Harvard Ad Hoc Committee later reported two definitions of death: the “traditional” cardio-pulmonary death and “brain death” (Lock 138). In 1981, the Report of the Medical Consultants on the Diagnosis of Death to the US President's Commission reevaluated death, advocating that the diagnosis of brain death should not be distinguished from the death of “the organism as a whole” (Death...
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...Commercialization of Transplants Introduction The 1983 Human Tissue Act 65 regulates every aspect concerning organ transplants (Schicktanz, and Chair in Bioethics (Ḥefah), 2013). Since its last amendment in 1989, there have been tremendous developments in medical science. Presently, organ transplants are nearly routine operations in various hospitals. Commercializing human part for transplantation has also seen an increase in demand for sperms, hair, plasma, eggs, among others. Even so, there are arguments for and against the commercialization of human organs such as marrow, kidney, and sundry, with both sides of the arguments facing criticism. It is imperative to investigate ethical aspects regarding commercialization of human organs. To reach a conclusion on whether it is ethical or unethical, this paper summarizes both sides of the argument and later presents a moral argument and rationale for commercialization of transplants. Without commercialization, there would be few potential donors willing to give out their organs to a dying patient who needs the specific organ urgently, which is contrary to human dignity. This is the moral argument in this report. Arguments for commercialization In 2009, a group of cancer patients, bone-marrow donation advocates, and parents filled a lawsuit against the US government. The federal law had banned buying and selling of human organs. One of the parents had three daughters suffering from a blood disorder called Fanconi anemia, whose treatment...
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...Ethics in Organ Transplant Name Course Tutor Date Ethics in Organ Transplant Organ transplant is done when an organ in the human body fails to operate normally or malfunctions. Conditions may arise where there are two or more patients with only one available organ to transplant. These scarce organ resources present ethical challenges and the need to use fair decisions helps to identify the one who deserves the organ. It is inappropriate to donate an organ to an addict whose conditions are unrecoverable. On the other hand, deciding who is fit to live in the society should not be on the hands of doctors. This paper suggests that organ allocation be rooted with justice, which demands that all equal patients with proper family reputation be treated equally and those unequal patients with bad family behavior be treated unequally. If patients do not have readily available living donor, they are placed into waiting pool where they the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) maintains their list (Orenstein, 2004). When donor organs become available, an organ procurement organization (OPO) matches it with the appropriate transplant patients using a computer program (NoAuthorFound, 1999). This program will then generate a ranked list of patients eligible to receive the donor organ. This ranked list is based on; organ size, organ type, blood type, distance from the patient to the donor organ, level of medical urgency, and time on the waiting list. In some cases, however, the first...
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...Ethics Analysis Paper Ethical Issues Related to Organ Donations In 1983 Dr H Barry Jacobs, a physician from Virginia, whose medical license had been revoked after a conviction for Medicare mail-fraud, founded International Kidney Exchange, Ltd. He sent a brochure to 7,500 American hospitals offering to broker contracts between patients with end-stage-renal-disease and persons willing to sell one kidney. His enterprise never got off the ground, but Dr Jacobs did spark an ethical debate that resulted in hearings before a congressional committee headed by Albert Gore, Jr., then a representative from the state of Tennessee. The offensive proposal for kidney sales led to the National Organ Transplant Act to become law in the United States in 1984. An ethical consensus developed around the world that there should be no monetary compensation for transplantable organs, either from living or deceased persons. Unfortunately, the altruistic supply of organs has been much less than adequate, and thousands of patients die each year waiting for organ transplantation. As the number of patients who die waiting for organ transplants continues to rise, more families are taking the quest for an organ into their own hands, and raising tough ethical questions in the process. In July, 2004 Todd Krampitz, 32, of Houston, Texas received a liver transplant after publicizing his plight through billboards, e-mails, a Web site and an extensive media campaign. He suffered from...
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...Commercialization of Organ Transplants Rosetta Jeter Professor Rufus Robinson BUS309 - Business Ethics May 1, 2014 The commercialization of human organs for transplantation is a possibility with the potential to supply one hundred percent of the demand for organs. The ethical debate if whether to commercialize the sale of human organs has been prohibited in the United States since 1984 by the National Organ Transplantation Act. The principle fact that the heart, blood, corneas, skin, semen, tissue, female eggs, liver, hair, and lungs could be sold at a price which the rich people would exploitate and take advantage of poor people. However, the trading of human organs is being done any way. Putting the market into the open will open the door f or safety of the donor and the recipient. There are a vast majority of pre-trial medical studies being done with patients that have a certain type of diseases every day in the United States and are paid for the use of the study on them and the supplies are free as well as the services. Opening the market may control some of the illegal organ trading and if the trade is done legally and safe it would benefit them both even thru the death of the donor would benefit with a proper burial and compensate their family. The position of whether the sale of organs should be permitted or not should involve the donor, recipient, and medical authority for each one of them, for safe...
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...Report on organ sales Peng Yl Tutor: F.Yang Study skills 6/12 International Business Class 5 Table of contents 1. Executive summary This report was to research whether we should legalize the sale of human organs. It examined the cases about organ sales all over the world. The major methodology is case study of quality research. The main findings were that situation of organ translation and sales in entire world. It was concluded that legalize the sales of human organs can not make more people get rescue and the sale of human organs is a kind of crime. The recommendations are that organ sales should be banned and society needs a law to control the black market. 2. Introduction Here is the report concerning about whether we should legalize the sale of human organs. People has discussed about it for a long time. According to public reports, China has become the world's second largest organ transplantation country. In China, There are about ten thousand cases of transplant operation each year. Besides, millions of patients are waiting for organ transplants. Under the serious imbalance of organ supply, some patients tend to buy organs through black market. It resulted in the formation of underground organ trading chain. My assumption in this report is organ sales can not be legalized. The scopes of this report are the cases about organ sales all over the world. The methodology I used is quality research...
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...Get Your Organ Here.....get your viable organ Excelsior University Get Your Organ Here.....get your viable organ Exceptional lifesaving transplantation of human tissues, have allowed us to prolong life due to technical advances in science and medicine. The market place for buying and selling of human organs should be legalized and regulated by the government. There is currently a widespread shortage of human organs available for transplantation (United Network for Organ Sharing, n.d.). The current program of unpaid organ donation is insufficient and has failed to produce anywhere near enough organs to meet the demand for them. The gap between supply and demand is wider in countries where there are strong religious sanctions or cultural inhibitions (Scheper-Hughes, 2000, p. 1). However, if people could be paid for their organs then many who would not donate them would sell them. This, by true measure is Autonomy. Persons are said to be autonomous when their actions are truly their own (A Scension Health, n.d.). No right is held more sacred or judiciously defended than that of every individual to possess control of his/her own person. Organ transplantation contributes significantly towards improving health, value of lifespan and decrease’s the probability of death from organ failure. We have a global market place for the sale of goods and services. Why should human organs be any different? Yes this notion conjures up a distressing scenario of ideas to which many objections...
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...are being challenged daily with issues that arise from the clash between modern medicine and Christian ethics. On the surface, this practice seems to be unselfish and kind-hearted, with the idea of sacrificing oneself to help another. To that point, 90% of Americans support organ donation. ("Statistics," 2013) When viewed from a Christian perspective, however, many complex issues arise. The following paper will describe these issues and where their complexity lies, what Scripture has to say on the issue, and how a Christian health professional should deal with them. Two major issues with this seemingly virtuous practice is the difficulty in differentiating between replaceable tissues and solid organs. Replaceable tissues, such as blood and bone marrow, can easily be given by a live donor, while organs can only be harvested once the donor is deceased, which brings about the debate about the criteria for determining death. Another major issue involves the question of who should give consent, and how to fairly allocate where these organs go. From a Christian perspective, however, a multitude of more critical Biblical issues are present. The first of these has to do with the Principle of Totality, which is to say that each part of the human body has a function and should not be removed. This principle does allow for transplantation, however, provided that the donation of the organ would preserve the life of another person. This issue is not directly addressed in Scripture, but certain...
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...Organ Transplant in the United States Stephanie Daniels UCA Certificate of Authorship I hereby certify that I am the author of this document and any assistance I received in preparing this report is fully acknowledged. I have also cited in APA format all sources of data, data analysis, ideas, words, phrases, or sentences. I also hereby certify that I have not submitted this paper to any other professor, at Webster University or elsewhere, during the course of my educational career. I have properly cited and acknowledged material that was presented in previous papers of my authorship. Signature: __________________________________________________ Date: __________________________________________________ TABLE OF CONTENTS Page # Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………3 Organ Transplant…………………………………………………………………………..4 What Organs and Tissues Can Be Donated……………………………………………….6 Organ Transplant Cost…………………………………………………………………….10 Ethical Issues: Organ Transplant…………………………………………………………..11 Strength and Weaknesses……………………………………………………………….....14 Alternatives and Key Challenges: Organ/Tissue Transplant……………………………...15 Summary and recommendations…………………………………………………………...17 References…………………………………………………………………………………19 Abstract Organ transplant experiments began in the 1800’s on animals and humans as a need...
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...Should Organ Market be legalized? Many people die each year while waiting on the list for an organ. The National Organ Transplant Act was founded to address the organ donation shortage and improve the organ matching. The National Organ Transplant Act is responsible for the placement process and the managing of the waitlist. But in title three section one of the National Organ Transplant Act the federal government bans the buying and selling of organs in the United States. The growth in population and the decrease in organ donation has resulted in organs deficit. There is a growing supply and demand gap in the United States. The non-legalization of organ markets goes against the concept of choice and individual rights which is part of the foundation of the United States. The body is a private property and people should have the right to do as they please with their body. By having an organ market there will be many economic and personal benefits. Some arguments that are proposed by people against the organ market are that the legalization of the sale of human organs would create a black market. A black market that might increase crime in the illegal pursuit of organs. It is also believed that organ market will result in many negative externalities; a negative externality is a cost that is suffered by a third party that was not included in the original plans. An example of a negative externality that would arise from the legalization of organ market would be an increasing child...
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