Organ Donation Ethics

by

Organ Donation Ethics

Introduction

The health of an individual is most valuable asset in the medical profession. Autonomy and dignity of the individual must always be preserved. Medical Ethics (set of principles and rules governing moral care) is the necessary foundation behavior and interpersonal relationships established between a doctor (knowing, knowledgeable and competent actor) and a patient (object and subject, while organic, social and personal) which he sees a friend. Ethics is the part of philosophy dealing with morality and the obligations of man. Morality is relative to the actions or characters of individuals from the point of view of good or evil. Is something that does not belong to the field of the senses or physical, but to the understanding, awareness or spiritual? Neither belongs to the legal field, but the internal forum and respect human (Caplan, 1998).

The term bioethics is emerging and expresses the ethics of biological life. Try substituting other terms such as medical ethics or medical ethics, giving it a secular approach, interdisciplinary, prospective, comprehensive and systematic. This term allows the incorporation of other professionals in the life sciences, or the right. That is, the part of ethics or moral philosophy that studies the legality of interventions on human life, especially in medicine and life sciences (Finn, 2000).

Organ Transplants

Organ transplants are one of the most significant exponents of scientific progress of modern medicine, given the conservation techniques viscera on one side and the development of immune-suppressive drugs such as cyclosporine, on the other, allowing a prolonged survival of organ transplanted and therefore the patient. It is therefore reasonable to assume that modern bioethics, which should be channeled all aspects of transplantation. To produce a transplant must have a donation and reception. In the event of the grant will bring to light the ethical and cultural attitudes of a society, identified in the person consents to the transplant. At the reception meet the wishes of the patient with the social justice aspects of equitable distribution of organs (Gruessner, 2008). In Western countries like ours, the donation of organs for transplantation occurs in a context of high standards of social and distributive justice:

Health care is generally universal.

The situation of illness, unemployment or disability is compensated financially.

The facilities for treatment before transplantation, especially dialysis treatment in patients with ESRD are virtually limitless.

Finally the possibilities of obtaining organs from deceased donors are high.

Thus, ethical principles accepted in developed countries cannot be extrapolated to other geographical areas with large basic needs. In transplantation, care of these ethical principles should be balanced and you cannot attend one at the expense of others. Numerous issues arise related to the areas of knowledge and practice where necessary take decisions to help resolve, in a very short time limit for medical situations and coordinators involved in transplant procedures do not infringe the basic ethical principles. In general, the dilemmas are related to transplant the donated organ and the recipient thereof.

Discussion

To respect one of the fundamental principles of bioethics, that of autonomy (i.e., respect for the will of the ...