{"id":1152,"date":"2011-06-22T11:06:59","date_gmt":"2011-06-22T10:06:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=1152"},"modified":"2011-06-23T09:14:47","modified_gmt":"2011-06-23T08:14:47","slug":"should-organ-donation-be-compulsory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2011\/06\/22\/should-organ-donation-be-compulsory\/","title":{"rendered":"Should Organ Donation be Compulsory?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Channel 4 is currently mid-way through a series of short talking-head films on the question of whether organ donation should be compulsory: as I write this, two have been broadcast, with another five to come.<\/p>\n

The first one is by John Harris<\/a>, rehearsing familiar arguments about the permissibility of mandated donation (as he did here<\/a>) and live-donor organ sales (as he and Charles Erin did here<\/a>). \u00a0I find myself thinking that he’s probably right, and straightforwardly so.<\/p>\n

But I’ve really enjoyed Derek House’s contribution<\/a>; sadly for him, my enjoyment is almost entirely of the pointing-and-laughing sort.\u00a0\u00a0House objects to mandatory donation – or, by the sound of it, any donation at all – and explains this in terms of his being a Jehovah’s Witness. \u00a0He has two lines of argument against transplantation, and one really strange line that he thinks is an argument but is just bizarre.<\/p>\n

Let’s get the bizarreness out of the way. \u00a0He has a couple of anecdotes about people whose personalities have changed after an organ transplant. \u00a0So, er…<\/p>\n

Hmph.<\/p>\n

OK. \u00a0Moving on.<\/p>\n

The first of the more substantial arguments – comparatively more substantial, you understand – is an appeal to the Bible. \u00a0He basically says that an organ donation is “very close” to what the Bible says about blood. \u00a0(I’m not going to give time references: the whole thing’s only 110 seconds long.) \u00a0A heart transplant, he claims, is very like blood being given. \u00a0Why is that a problem? \u00a0Well, a quick scout around Google takes me to the Watchtower Society<\/a>; it would appear that there’s a few verses in the Bible that refer to blood, and these are interpreted as referring to transfusion as well. \u00a0So the argument would seem to be that transplantation is a bit like<\/em> blood transfusion, and that that’s a bit like<\/em> a few things that worried a small group of ancients. \u00a0Or, put another way: if (1) you’re satisfied that a small group of ancients was correct to be worried about A<\/em>, and (2) you’re satisfied that A<\/em> is similar to\u00a0B<\/em>, and (3) you’re satisfied that\u00a0B<\/em> is similar to\u00a0C<\/em>, then that’s enough to show that (4) we ought to be worried about C<\/em>. \u00a0And if C<\/em> is the receipt of a transplanted organ, (5) we ought to be worried about D<\/em>, the donation of an organ for a life-saving transplant. \u00a0No, I don’t understand the leap from receipt to donation either.<\/p>\n

I don’t doubt that House is\u00a0sincere in his beliefs. \u00a0But: really. \u00a0That’s just lamentably poor reasoning by anyone’s standard.<\/p>\n

The second argument is that transplantation “is clearly against nature”. \u00a0Presumably, being against nature makes something wrong. \u00a0Let’s just ignore that this message\u00a0is delivered by means of a device fabricated from materials not found in nature that allows instant communication with people thousands of miles away. \u00a0It’d be petty to point that out.<\/p>\n

(Thanks to Aeron Haworth for the pointer.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Channel 4 is currently mid-way through a series of short talking-head films on the question of whether organ donation should be compulsory: as I write this, two have been broadcast, with another five to come. The first one is by John Harris, rehearsing familiar arguments about the permissibility of mandated donation (as he did here) […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[963,443,328,577,407],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-curios","category-jme","category-philosophy","category-resource","category-wtf"],"yoast_head":"\nShould Organ Donation be Compulsory? - Journal of Medical Ethics blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2011\/06\/22\/should-organ-donation-be-compulsory\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Should Organ Donation be Compulsory? - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Channel 4 is currently mid-way through a series of short talking-head films on the question of whether organ donation should be compulsory: as I write this, two have been broadcast, with another five to come. 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