Ethics Final Paper

Organ Donation: Legal and Ethical Issues
Jessamyn Holstine
HCA 322
Instructor:   Theresa Reboli
February 27, 2010

Organ Donation: Legal and Ethical Issues

There are many legal and ethical issues that are considered in organ donation, many of these issues are because of peoples religious beliefs, and some arise because a family member may not agree with what is considered brain dead for a patient who has had a accident and they will not ever recover.   Many people may argue that putting a foreign body inside someone else will change who that person is and make them a different person.   An organ transplant is a surgical operation in which a failing or damaged organ in the human body is removed and replaced with a functioning one. The donated organ may be from a deceased donor, a living donor, or an animal. In some cases an artificial organ is used.(www.ahc.umn.edu/img/assets/25857/organ_transplants.PDF)   Every ten minutes someone is added to the National Organ Transplant waiting list, my brother-in-law has been on that waiting list for a new heart for over 3 years now.   Some people may be on this list until the day that they die.   More than a 110,000 people are in need of life saving organ transplants in the United States.   There were just 8,021 deceased organ donors in the United States in 2009. A total of 21,855 organs were transplanted because these donors gave the gift of life.(www.donatelifeny.org/about-donation/data/)  
Ethical principles are universal rules of conduct, derived from ethical theories that provide a practical basis for identifying what kinds of actions, intentions, and motives are valued. (Pozgar, 2010)   Autonomy is when a person can make their own decisions that they feel is the best thing for themselves.   They have the right to refuse treatment if they feel that it is not in their best interest.   With organ donation, the patient’s need for having a transplant does not leave a whole lot of room to be picky.   When a organ becomes... [continues]

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