Rethinking the ethics of vital organ donations

Hastings Cent Rep. 2008 Nov-Dec;38(6):38-46. doi: 10.1353/hcr.0.0085.

Abstract

Accepted medical practice already violates the dead donor rule. Explicitly jettisoning the rule -- allowing vital organs to be extracted, under certain conditions, from living patients -- is a radical change only at the conceptual level. But it would expand the pools of eligible organ donors.

MeSH terms

  • Advanced Cardiac Life Support
  • Brain Death*
  • Consciousness*
  • Euthanasia, Passive
  • Homicide
  • Humans
  • Informed Consent*
  • Organ Transplantation / ethics
  • Third-Party Consent
  • Tissue and Organ Harvesting / ethics*
  • Tissue and Organ Procurement / ethics*
  • Withholding Treatment / ethics*