By David Shaw Following a wide consultation and debate, the Organ Donation (Deemed Consent) Bill was recently approved by parliament and will come into effect next year. The new legislation resembles the deemed consent regime introduced in Wales in 2013, and a similar scheme is under consideration in Scotland. Currently, people in England who want […]
Category: Organ donation
A Moral Framework for Living Donor Transplantation
By Lainie Friedman Ross and J. Richard Thistlethwaite Living donor transplantation has been controversial since its inception because it exposes donors to medical risks for the medical benefit of their intended recipients. The usual bioethics argument about the moral permissibility of living kidney donation focuses on the concept of respect for persons which is often […]
Organismal death, the dead donor rule and the ethics of vital organ procurement
Guest Authors: Xavier Symons, Institute for Ethics and Society, University of Notre Dame Australia, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Reginald Mary Chua, Philosophy, Catholic Theological College, East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Paper: Organismal death, the dead donor rule and the ethics of vital organ procurement The brain death criterion for death (as it is currently understood in medical practice) was first propounded in 1968 by an […]
Harmless Kidney Markets
Guest Post by Adam Shriver Note: this post was originally published at the Practical Ethics Blog Kidney transplants result in improved quality of life and increased longevity compared to dialysis for patients with end-stage renal disease (Evans et al. 1985, Schnuelle et al. 1998, Wolfe et al 1999). In 2014, the national transplant list in […]
Organ Donation in Wales: An Early Assessment of Deemed Consent
Andreas Albertsen Department of Political Science, Aarhus University Paper: Deemed Consent: assessing the new opt-out approach to organ procurement in Wales The shortage of organs for transplant continuous to be a sad fact across the globe. People die and suffer, while waiting for organs to become available. This sad state of affairs have sparked a number […]
Can Options Make Us Worse Off? Choice, Pressure, and Paid Kidney Donation
Guest Post: Julian J. Koplin Article: Choice, pressure and markets in kidneys Paying people to donate a ‘spare’ kidney might help alleviate the current shortage of transplantable organs. However, doing so would conflict with a principle widely accepted within the medical community since the earliest days of organ transplantation: that bodily organs should not be bought […]
Organ Donation: Presumed Consent and Focusing on What Matters
Guest Post by Rebecca Brown Recent newspaper reports covered the story of Jemima Layzell, a 13 year old who died suddenly of a brain aneurysm in 2012. According to reports, shortly before Jemima died, the subject of organ donation had come up in discussions with her family, prompted by the death of a family friend […]
Revealing Recipient Details to Families of Potential Organ Donors
Guest Post: David Shaw & Dale Gardiner Paper: Increasing organ donation rates by revealing recipient details to families of potential donors Families often don’t allow their deceased relatives to donate organs, even when the patient was a registered organ donor. Even when the donation process is explained sensitively by specialist nurses, families can focus much more […]
Re: Nudges in a Post-truth World
Guest Post: Nathan Hodson In a recent article in the Journal of Medical Ethics, Neil Levy has developed a concept of “nudges to reason,” offering a new tool for those trying to reconcile medical ethics with the application of behavioural psychological research – a practice known as nudging. Very roughly, nudging means adjusting the way choices […]
No Pain, All Gain: The Case for Farming Organs in Brainless Humans
Guest post by Ruth Stirton, University of Sussex (@RuthStirton) and David Lawrence, Newcastle University (@Biojammer) It is widely acknowledged that there is a nationwide shortage of organs for transplantation purposes. In 2016, 400 people died whilst on the organ waiting list. Asking for donors is not working fast enough. We should explore all avenues to […]