Organ Transplants
Running Head: ASSIGNMENT 1: COMMERCIALIZATION OF ORGAN TRANSPLANTS
Assignment 1: Commercialization of Organ Transplants
Professor Dorothy A. Sliben
Bus 309- Business Ethics
April 27, 2014
Strayer University
Commercialization of Organ Transplants
In this essay I am to act as a member of an ethics committee who listens to arguments for and against altering the way in which human organs are obtained for patients in need of transplants. In this case a new policy has been made to allow the sale of organs by consenting individuals to patients in need and to medical institutions has been proposed. Critics argue that permitting organs to be bought and sold is unethical. I am being asked to review the arguments for and …show more content…
The article discusses a recent break-through in medication called Cyclosporin made to preserve human organs, with this medication it will expand the time frame in which a living organ can survive. The article also goes on to discuss how there is a shortage in human organs to transplant, so they are suggesting to financially compensate living human beings to donate their organs to make up the shortage. One of the examples that is argued is using Kantianism, Kant 's categorical imperative
"I ought never to act except in such a way that I can also will that my maxim should become a universal law," (Kant, 1964) with this being said it is not immoral to commercialize a donor who is declared brain dead, however a live human being who is personally selling his or her organs is unethical and morally wrong. They argued that people may just be selling organs to satisfy drug habits or alcohol addictions and personal self interests. There were several other positions that were stated the following one was Legal …show more content…
“Man cannot dispose over himself because he is not a thing; he is not his own property; to say that he is would be self-contradictory; for in so far as he is a person he is a subject in whom the ownership of things can be vested, and if he were his own property, he would be a thing over which he could have ownership. But a person cannot be a property and so cannot be a thing which can be owned for it is impossible to be a person and a thing, the proprietor and the property. Accordingly, a man is not at his own disposal. He is not entitled to sell a limb or even one of his teeth.... (Kant, 1977)
We are not things we are living human beings and we should not be allowed to wake up one morning and say “I’m selling my body part I need some extra cash” this is morally wrong. Not only is it morally wrong but it is ethically wrong for a business to place an ad in the news paper that reads “Need extra cash donate a Kidney”. Although the cause is to help people in need, I believe this is a black market type of practice and should not be allowed.
Assignment 1: Commercialization of Organ Transplants
Professor Dorothy A. Sliben
Bus 309- Business Ethics
April 27, 2014
Strayer University
Commercialization of Organ Transplants
In this essay I am to act as a member of an ethics committee who listens to arguments for and against altering the way in which human organs are obtained for patients in need of transplants. In this case a new policy has been made to allow the sale of organs by consenting individuals to patients in need and to medical institutions has been proposed. Critics argue that permitting organs to be bought and sold is unethical. I am being asked to review the arguments for and …show more content…
The article discusses a recent break-through in medication called Cyclosporin made to preserve human organs, with this medication it will expand the time frame in which a living organ can survive. The article also goes on to discuss how there is a shortage in human organs to transplant, so they are suggesting to financially compensate living human beings to donate their organs to make up the shortage. One of the examples that is argued is using Kantianism, Kant 's categorical imperative
"I ought never to act except in such a way that I can also will that my maxim should become a universal law," (Kant, 1964) with this being said it is not immoral to commercialize a donor who is declared brain dead, however a live human being who is personally selling his or her organs is unethical and morally wrong. They argued that people may just be selling organs to satisfy drug habits or alcohol addictions and personal self interests. There were several other positions that were stated the following one was Legal …show more content…
“Man cannot dispose over himself because he is not a thing; he is not his own property; to say that he is would be self-contradictory; for in so far as he is a person he is a subject in whom the ownership of things can be vested, and if he were his own property, he would be a thing over which he could have ownership. But a person cannot be a property and so cannot be a thing which can be owned for it is impossible to be a person and a thing, the proprietor and the property. Accordingly, a man is not at his own disposal. He is not entitled to sell a limb or even one of his teeth.... (Kant, 1977)
We are not things we are living human beings and we should not be allowed to wake up one morning and say “I’m selling my body part I need some extra cash” this is morally wrong. Not only is it morally wrong but it is ethically wrong for a business to place an ad in the news paper that reads “Need extra cash donate a Kidney”. Although the cause is to help people in need, I believe this is a black market type of practice and should not be allowed.