May I give my heart away? On the permissibility of living vital organ donation

In “Double Effect Donation,” Camosy and Vukov argue that “there are circumstances in which it is morally permissible for a healthy individual to donate their organs even though their death is a foreseeable outcome”. They propose that a living donor could ethically donate an entire, singular, vital organ while knowing that this act would result in death. In reply, I argue that it is not ethical for a living person to donate an entire, singular, vital organ. Moreover, mutatis mutandis, it is not ethical for surgeons and others to perform such a deadly operation. For to do so is “intentionally to cause the death of the donor in disposing of his organs”. Such an act violates the dead donor rule which holds that an entire, singular, vital organ may be taken only from a corpse. Contrary to Camosy and Vukov’s claims, double-effect reasoning does not endorse such organ donation.

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Chaplain “DOs and DON’Ts” on Organ Donation

Ethics & Medics ◽

10.5840/em201843711 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 43 (7) ◽

pp. 1-2

Author(s):

Jozef Zalot ◽

Keyword(s):

Organ Donation ◽

Organ Procurement ◽

Family Members ◽

Organ Donor ◽

Organ Donors ◽

Vital Organ ◽

Course Of Action ◽

Donation Process ◽

Organ Procurement Organizations ◽

The Relationship

This guide was developed in collaboration with LifeCenter Organ Donor Network (Cincinnati, OH) to offer chaplains a framework for the best possible course of action when they provide spiritual care to family members of patients who are potential vital organ donors. Some organ procurement organizations (OPOs) may want to control the donation process. They are thus hesitant to invite in—let alone collaborate with—any “outsiders” who they believe might undermine the likelihood of procuring vital organs. So how should a chaplain respond when ministering to potential vital organ donors and their families? Should they speak with family members about donation? What should they say? Do OPOs want chaplains to speak with family members? Should there be limits to these conversations? This can be a touchy area, because vital organ donation necessarily entails the death of the patient. This makes the relationship between chaplains and OPOs sometimes strained.

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Christian Bioethics, Brain Death, and Vital Organ Donation

Christian bioethics Non-Ecumenical Studies in Medical Morality ◽

10.1093/cb/cbx019 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 24 (1) ◽

pp. 79-94 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Michael G Muñoz

Keyword(s):

Brain Death ◽

Organ Donation ◽

Vital Organ

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Death, dying and donation: community perceptions of brain death and their relationship to decisions regarding withdrawal of vital organ support and organ donation

Internal Medicine Journal ◽

10.1111/imj.15028 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 50 (10) ◽

pp. 1192-1201

Author(s):

George Skowronski ◽

Michael J. O'Leary ◽

Christine Critchley ◽

Lisa O'Reilly ◽

Cynthia Forlini ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Brain Death ◽

Organ Donation ◽

Organ Support ◽

Community Perceptions ◽

Vital Organ

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University Students’ vs. Lay People’s Perspectives on Organ Donation and Improving Health Communication in Poland

ETHICS IN PROGRESS ◽

10.14746/eip.2018.2.8 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 99-117

Author(s):

Wojciech Boratyński ◽

Grażyna Bączek ◽

Agnieszka Dyzmann-Sroka ◽

Agnieszka Jędrzejczak ◽

Aleksandra Kielan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Health Communication ◽

Organ Donation ◽

Medical Technology ◽

Ethical Issues ◽

Ex Vivo ◽

Organ Transplant ◽

Factual Knowledge ◽

Vital Organ ◽

Willingness To Donate ◽

The World

Given that organ transplant is a standard medical technology admitted in medical practice, and taking into consideration that Polish transplantology is regarded among the most advanced in the world one should expect to find similarly high levels of acceptance in interviewees asked for their opinion on vital organ transplantation and their willingness to donate a paired organ ex vivo, or a vital organ ex mortuo in order to rescue the life of a recipient with a missing vital organ. The paper presents research build on the societal assessment of vital organ donation and transplant policies in Poland with the focus on students. Data have been collected at three different universities (Boratyński et al., Questionnaire on the Bases of Transplantation Medicine 2016/7). Various assessments concerning a vital organ donation have been observed. The authors discuss educational factors contributing to these variety including factual knowledge and ethical issues.

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Vital Organ Donation without the Dead Donor Rule

Death, Dying, and Organ TransplantationReconstructing Medical Ethics at the End of Life ◽

10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199739172.003.0015 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 114-152

Author(s):

Franklin G. Miller ◽

Robert D. Truog

Keyword(s):

Organ Donation ◽

Vital Organ ◽

Dead Donor Rule ◽

The Dead

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Difficulties of Determining Death

Public Bioethics ◽

10.1093/med/9780199798483.003.0008 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 155-176

Author(s):

James F. Childress

Keyword(s):

Organ Donation ◽

Vital Organ ◽

Determination Of Death ◽

Life And Death ◽

Ethical Implications ◽

Legal Fiction ◽

Dead Donor Rule ◽

Deceased Organ Donation ◽

The Dead

This chapter considers what we should do with the “dead donor rule” in transplantation in light of controversies about different ways of determining death. The system of voluntary deceased organ donation depends on public trust, based in part on adherence to the “Dead Donor Rule” (DDR). However, this rule presupposes that the line between life and death can be reliably drawn for purposes of removing vital organs for transplantation. Different but serious conceptual, scientific, and ethical questions surround deceased donation after neurological determination of death and after circulatory determination of death in either controlled or uncontrolled forms. This chapter examines the ethical implications of different approaches to the DDR and asks which public policy should be adopted: (1) abandon the DDR and move to living vital organ donation; (2) retain the DDR but view the determination of death as a legal fiction; (3) retain the DDR but expand individual/familial choices of conceptions of and criteria for determining death; or (4) retain and strengthen the DDR and ethically improve its operation. This chapter argues for the fourth option and for improving the process of individual and familial informed consent to deceased organ donation.

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