Organ Transplantation and Ethics
When looking on the face of it, there seems to be little reason to question the ethics behind the idea of transplanting organs. Transplanting organs is arguably one of the greatest achievements of today. Tens of thousands of people are given a chance to start a new life through the selflessness of others. Even though this is the way things look, unfortunately right under the surface lurks a jungle of ethical dilemmas and controversies which have threatened to undermine the entire practice of transplanting organs.
According to Chadwick and Schuklenk, organ transplantation is the surgical removal of a body organ, such as a kidney, from one individual (the organ donor) and placement of the organ in another individual for the purpose of improving the health of the recipient. (393). The first successful transplant was done among identical twins in 1954 and in fraternal twins in 1957. The first heart transplant, although unsuccessful, took place in 1967. The patient had died due to rejection of the organ. Since then, anti-rejection drugs led to the successful transplants between non relatives. Today, many different types of transplants are used. They include liver, kidney, heart, lung, and even transplants of tissues in the brain.
There are three different sources as to where a recipient may receive his/her donor organ. Organs may come from what is known as live human donors. (This is when the organ(s) being donated comes from a living person.) Live donors always have the right to refuse whether or not they would like to donate their organs. Usually, it is more stressful on a person to make a decision of "no" when the person needing the transplant is in their own fami ...