Organ transplantation is one of the significant issues in health care. There are various legal and ethical considerations encompassing this topic. One of the issues evolving the transplantation of human organs is obtaining the consent of the family of a dead donor. Given that the process should be done in soonest possible time, obtaining a consent from the family will take otherwise. That is because, a grieving family member may not be able to make decisions right after her loved one passed away. On the other hand, this is a challenging scenario for the physicians as such consent is needed to be obtained as soon as possible. This is when the ethical and legal issues come in. Physician should consider the family member’s feelings, while their hands are tied against the need to act as fast as they can. An organ from a dead person must be saved from being damaged either through immediate transplantation procedure or by injecting it with an ice-cold saline solution in order to delay to extend the life of the organ. The concerns related to obtaining a consent are clear indications that organ transplantation should not be done without the consideration for both ethical and legal aspects of the procedures. Thus, it is unethical to proceed with the same procedure without obtaining a consent as it will be viewed as an act of stealing. Every need for organ transplantation must be based upon the idea of medical ethics, from which must serve as the major consideration prior to application of organ transplant procedure.
The principle of totality was defined as an act that would benefit the whole body, despite the mutilation or destruction of other body parts. It is a holistic approach that does not look at an individual aspect. However, this is in contradiction with medical principle, which states that actions should not inflict any harm at any cost. Relatively, an organ donor who opt to donate his organ, would provide harming effects in the future, such as being vulnerable to kidney disease if he donated one of his two kidneys. Conversely, it is in line with the principle of totality’s notion that it is alright to mutilate body parts for as long as it will save the whole body, which in this case, refers to the organ receiver. The principle of totality is a clear opposing idea against the principle of non-maleficence, which aims to prevent harm in the first place. Prior to the transplantation procedure, medical professionals must consider the application of medical ethics. This is to avoid donors who die due to complications from the surgical procedure, from which may have been due to lack of information.
The basic principles of medical ethics aim to protect the individuals from any harm. Justice pertains to equal distribution of treatments across all groups (Stanford University, n.p.). On the other hand Beneficence states that any procedures must be of good intention towards the patients, while Non-Maleficence means any procedure should not provide harm against a person or other members of the society (Jox, Assadi and Marckmann, 222). Safe and harmless medical procedure must not only be applied to selected organ donor or recipient, but among all individuals. Organ transplantation is a sensitive topic in terms of underlying ethical considerations from obtaining a consent to ensuring that the procedure creates no harm and damage to both the donor and the recipient. Some of these concerns encompass various aspects, such as distribution of organs, acquisition, and allocution. The concern about the distribution pertains to who must receive the organs and from which basis should the professional decide. On the other hand, the acquisition concern aims to answer the question about the conditions that organ donations must be accepted and allowed. Overall, organ transplantation is a procedure that helps the organ receiver, but can be risky for donors. That is why, it is important that medical ethics must be the core ethical consideration of medical practitioners before the organ transplantation takes place.
Works Cited
Jox, Ralf J, Galia Assadi, and Georg Marckmann. Organ Transplantation in Times of Donor Shortage: Challenges and Solutions. Springer, 2016. Print.
Stanford University. "What are the Basic Principles of Medical Ethics?" Stanford University. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2016. <https://web.stanford.edu/class/siw198q/websites/reprotech/New%20Ways%20of%20Making%20Babies/EthicVoc.htm>.
