Grayce P. Storey
Ethical Issue Does having wealth have anything to do with organ priority distribution? All organs are allocated according to blood type, height, weight, tissue type, length of time on the waiting list, medical urgency, and geographical location. If the recipient does not meet the requirements it would be the waste of an organ that someone that would meet the requirements could use. For an example, what would be the use of trying to fit an obese tall man's liver into the body of a normal twelve year old? In a mandate issued by congress in the fall of 1998, states that, "the Institute Of Medicine (IOM), endorsed the role of Health and Human Services (HHS) in ensure the fairness and effectiveness of the nation's organ transplantation system...National transplantation policies are developed by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) for approval by HHS".5 The bottom line is that this policy is in the best interest of the patient.
The IOM's focus was and still is on liver transplantation policies. Livers are in short supply. The physicians will make the call on who gets the liver. The call however is not a random call but upon need and meeting the specified requirements. Therefore the patient that receives the liver is the patient with the greatest medical need. An ethical issue that arise out of this decision is, Is it fair for an individual to receive priority if he willfully destroys his liver by drinking? SCENARIO The alcoholic started off as a social drinker and his habit mushroomed into a serious alcoholic. Now his liver has been destroyed due to his excessive drinking. In order for him to live he has to get a liver transplant. He is placed as a priority on the liver transplant list. On the other hand there is a patient that went into the hospital for an operation . During the surgery the doctors decided that she needed a blood transfusion. They gave her the blood and she came down with a rare liver disorder. Now she too needs a liver. She too is placed as a priority on the liver transplant list. Question, who should get the liver? Should it be the individual that drank himself into poor health or should it be the individual that received a tainted blood transfusion? The answer of course will rest with those qualified physicians whose job is to make those decisions based on fairness and the other criteria for distribution.
Each day sixty people on the waiting list receives an organ and lives, but the down side is, seventeen people on the waiting list dies. There just aren't enough organs to go around.
"Ethnicity is a factor in organ donation. Some diseases of the kidney, heart, lungs, pancreas, and liver are found more frequently in racial and minorities than in the general population. Successful transplantation often is enhanced by the matching of organs between members of the same ethnic and racial group".6 Genetically speaking, people of the same ethnic race are more similar than people of other races. That is why it is important for more minorities to become donors. This will have to occur in order for the death rate among minorities to go down and the long waiting period would decrease for transplants. That is not to say that if you are donating you can go in and specify who is to get your organs. If that were the case your offer to donate will be declined.
If a wealthy person comes to this country from another country in need of an organ transplant and he or she meets the necessary requirements he or she may be put at the head of the list. He or she may be put ahead of an American citizen. Some questions may arise such; why didn't he or she stay in their own country? Why must an American die in order for the foreigner to live? All of these are good arguments but the fact remains, the criterion for selecting a patient for transplant stands. However, there is a policy in place that prohibits the granting of too many non-citizens organs for transplant.
If you are looking to purchase an organ , and I strongly advise everyone not to ever to consider such an act. Nevertheless, there are countries that do participate in this type of activity and they are in the realms of the law, for an example, India. These procuring facilities are not suitable They are not up to the sanitation standards. You put the recipient's health at risk if you choose organs from these facilities. The preserving source is not of a quality to be desired. The donors sometimes prevaricate regarding their health. Keep in mind it is the poor that donate their organs for money. A good practice is to stay far away from such facilities. An ethical issue Is it wrong to sell organs for money?
