Reference no: EM133231281

Case: Trade in Human Organs

An entrepreneur in a certain country conceives of a business that is designed to avoid waste and is committed to recycling. One of the first actions is to contact an undertaker with a view to purchasing spectacles from the deceased with a view to setting up a shop that sells such recycled goods. The undertaker saw no problem with that idea and entered into an arrangement to sell the goods, they being of no further use to the former owner.

That was such a successful venture that the entrepreneur extended the idea and suggested to the undertaker that artificial dentures would be a good next venture. With some misgivings the undertaker agreed, but with the proviso that they were properly sterilized first. Among the reservations by the undertaker here was the notion of who is the owner? Should the relatives be consulted? How were the proceeds to be divided? Having solved that problem satisfactorily, the entrepreneur found business so good that he wished to extend it further.

The next stage was seen as a rather personal form of recycling, that of body organs. Where a corpse had an undamaged and potentially useful, organs too might be harvested. Here the problems become more complicated. The recycling of organs needs much more technical knowledge than is available to the average undertaker. Among the technical problems are those of tissue typing, of preservation and prompt use, the setting up of a register, and of financial compensation and to whom. Add to this is the problem of whose permission is needed.

If this venture is successfully exploited with a proper setup is then the demand could well increase. Suppose that the entrepreneur is so successful that he wanted to extend the supply and, ideally, have fresh organs from young healthy cadavers. Being a lateral thinker he contacted prison authorities who might have a supply of those executed.

At least, he argued, they were not put to death in vain. If the prison authorities agreed and appropriate rules were framed, then the pressure might be on the system to ensure a steady supply and thus affect the rate at which prisoners were condemned to death.

One of the interesting ideas that the entrepreneur had was a prisoner who was not condemned to death might agree to the removal of a non-vital removal (say, one kidney)in return for a commutation of sentence and thus save the state the cost of further imprisonment as well as providing the prisoner with funds to start a new life.

Suppose, instead of a prison situation there is a hospital one. In a hospital there are always those who are very ill and in need of a transplant. For organ removal one needs to be certain that the donor is really dead before removal and dead from natural causes rather than being 'helped' along the way because of an urgent need for the organ. The criteria of death, then becomes a crucial one. A patient might be physically surviving, put be brain dead. Could one harvest an organ from a brain dead patient, which would involve ignoring other vital signs?

In this case one can see the escalation of a comparatively small moral issue into one which has very wide ramifications. This engaging case has some further aspects: one is the moral position of starting with simple items from the dead and escalates into a problem involving some very complex issues. Put in interrogative form here are some of the issues and questions for solution.

Questions:

1. Is the selling of spectacles from cadavers morally correct provided permission is given?

2. Does that same point apply to full dentures?

3. Is the purchase of organs from executed prisoners morally justifiable?

4. Is the purchase of an organ supposedly removed, not illegally, correct?

5. Who are the appropriate persons or authorities to give permission for organ harvesting?

6. If it leads to a trade in organs is there a moral dimension well beyond the business world?

7. What should the criterion be for the declaration being 'dead'?

8. What is our opinion of an entrepreneur who believes in recycling for the benefit of the living?

Write an essay on the topic of organ donation and explain every questions detailly.