Introducing Human Organ Donation & Sale
Summary
TLDRThe video script delves into the ethical complexities of human organ donation and sale. It addresses the persistent shortage of organs in the U.S., dispels myths about organ donor prioritization in emergency care, and stresses the importance of considering both donor and recipient perspectives. The discussion also touches on posthumous rights, family veto power over donations, and contrasts the effectiveness of opt-in versus opt-out donation systems, advocating for the latter. The lecture aims to provoke thought on the ethical treatment of organs and the potential of sales within this sensitive domain.
Takeaways
- 📚 The speaker transitions from theoretical ethics to applied ethics, focusing on biomedical ethics and specifically the ethics of human organ donation and sale.
- 🇺🇸 The U.S. faces a chronic shortage of donated organs, which is attributed to various factors including the limited circumstances under which organs remain viable for transplantation.
- 🚑 A common myth that emergency medical personnel might not treat organ donors as aggressively is debunked, emphasizing the commitment of medical professionals to saving lives.
- 🏥 The speaker encourages everyone to become organ donors, highlighting the importance of consent and personal choice in organ donation.
- 🧠 The ethical debate over posthumous rights is introduced, questioning whether the deceased have rights over their organs after death.
- 🤔 The script prompts consideration of the ethical claims of organ recipients who are in critical need versus the potential wishes of the deceased.
- 👨👩👧👦 Family consent plays a significant role in organ donation, often taking precedence over the individual's prior consent, which raises ethical questions about prioritizing family wishes.
- 🌍 The discussion contrasts the opt-in system prevalent in the U.S. with the opt-out system in many European countries, highlighting the impact of these systems on organ donation rates.
- 🚫 The potential negative consequences of overriding family vetoes on organ donation are considered, including the risk of perpetuating myths and deterring future donors.
- 🔄 The script touches on the broader ethical implications of organ donation, including the rights of the deceased, the needs of the living, and the role of family consent in the decision-making process.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the discussion in the provided transcript?
-The main focus of the discussion is the ethics surrounding human organ donation and sale, including the shortage of donated organs in the U.S., common myths about organ donation, and the ethical considerations of who has rights over organs after death.
Why is there a shortage of donated organs in the U.S.?
-The shortage is due to several reasons, including the fact that organs can only be used in less than one percent of deaths, as the dying process often ruins organs. Additionally, many people are hesitant to sign up as organ donors due to misconceptions.
What is the common myth mentioned about organ donation that deters people from signing up?
-The common myth is that if someone is an organ donor, emergency medical personnel like EMTs or doctors might not try as hard to save their life because they want to harvest the organs.
How do EMTs and ER doctors typically feel about organ donation in relation to their patients?
-EMTs and ER doctors are typically focused on saving lives and getting patients to the hospital, regardless of organ donor status. They are not influenced by the potential for organ donation and prioritize patient care.
What is the ethical argument for organ donation from the perspective of a person in organ failure?
-The ethical argument for organ donation from the perspective of a person in organ failure is that they have a strong claim to the organs of a deceased person, as their life depends on receiving an organ transplant.
What is the consequentialist argument regarding organ donation?
-The consequentialist argument states that the potential for saving lives through organ donation outweighs the concerns or fears of the deceased or their family, emphasizing the maximization of happiness and reduction of suffering.
Why do hospitals often respect the family's veto even if the person has consented to be an organ donor?
-Hospitals respect the family's veto to avoid bad publicity and because families, under stress, may not be ready to let go of their loved ones. Overriding family wishes could fuel public fears and potentially reduce the number of organ donors.
What is the difference between an opt-in system and an opt-out system for organ donation?
-In an opt-in system, individuals must explicitly consent to become organ donors, usually by checking a box on their driver's license. In an opt-out system, individuals are presumed to be organ donors unless they actively opt out.
Why are opt-out systems considered more effective for organ donation?
-Opt-out systems are considered more effective because they assume consent by default, which reduces the effort required for individuals to become donors. People are less likely to opt out of a list than to actively choose to join one.
What are some of the ethical issues discussed regarding the family's right to veto organ donation decisions?
-The ethical issues include whether the interests of the donor's family should override the interests of the person in need of an organ, the potential for perpetuating myths about organ donation, and the impact on public trust and willingness to become donors.
Outlines
🏥 Biomedical Ethics: Organ Donation and Sale
The speaker introduces the topic of biomedical ethics with a focus on human organ donation and sale. They discuss the shortage of donated organs in the U.S., reasons for the shortage including the misconception that emergency medical personnel might prioritize organ retrieval over patient care, and the importance of considering both the donor's and recipient's perspectives. The speaker also encourages students to become organ donors and highlights the ethical dilemmas surrounding organ donation, such as the rights of the deceased over their organs and the potential conflict between a donor's wishes and family consent.
🚑 The Myth of Organ Donor Neglect in Emergencies
This paragraph debunks the myth that emergency medical personnel might not treat organ donors as aggressively due to their donor status. The speaker emphasizes that medical professionals prioritize saving lives over organ retrieval and that the myth is unfounded. They also discuss the ethical considerations of organ donation, including the rights of the deceased and the living in need of organs, and the potential impact of family vetoes on organ donation decisions.
🏢 Family Veto and Organ Donation Systems
The speaker explores the role of family consent in organ donation, noting that families often have the power to veto a deceased's decision to donate, even if the individual had expressed a desire to be a donor. They discuss the ethical implications of this practice, including the potential for reduced organ donation rates if families feel their wishes are not respected. Additionally, the paragraph compares the opt-in and opt-out systems for organ donation, highlighting how the opt-out system, common in many European countries, tends to result in more organ donations due to the psychological impact of actively opting out rather than opting in.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Biomedical Ethics
💡Organ Donation
💡Myth
💡Consequentialism
💡Posthumous Rights
💡Family Veto
💡Opt-In System
💡Opt-Out System
💡Ethical Claim
💡Organ Failure
💡Publicity
Highlights
Introduction to the applied topic of human organ donation and sale, emphasizing the ethical considerations involved.
Discussion on the perpetual shortage of donated organs in the U.S. and the reasons behind it.
Explanation of the conditions under which organs are suitable for donation, such as the requirement for a sudden death.
Debunking the myth that emergency medical personnel might not treat organ donors as aggressively.
The importance of considering the rights and claims of individuals in organ failure when discussing organ donation ethics.
Argument that the living have a stronger ethical claim to organs than the deceased.
Consequentialist perspective on organ donation, weighing the value of saving lives against individual fears or rights.
The role of family consent in organ donation and the ethical dilemma it presents.
The impact of family vetoes on organ donation and the potential to perpetuate myths about organ donation.
Comparison between opt-in and opt-out systems for organ donation and their effectiveness.
The psychological aspect of humans being more likely to opt out than to opt in for organ donation.
The ethical debate on whether the deceased have rights over their organs posthumously.
The potential harm caused by the fear and trauma of one's body being violated after death.
The speaker's personal encouragement for everyone to become organ donors and their own status as a donor.
The预告 of upcoming discussions on additional ethical issues related to organ donation and sale.
Transcripts
we've looked at now
kind of the normative idea one normative
idea uh for ethics of how to make
ethical decision making so no i want to
kind of jump into an applied topic and i
used to do all of the theory in the
first half of the semester and then do
the applied stuff in the second half and
i think students got bogged down in the
theory stuff and now i like to mix it up
a little bit and so hopefully you'll
enjoy this topic my specialty in
philosophy is biomedical ethics so i did
a lot of study of this and it's really
interesting to me and i hope you'll find
it uh interesting to you as well so
and in this particular applied topic
we're going to talk about human organs
uh we're going to talk specifically
about the donation and sale of sale of
human organs
and the different uh ethical things
issues that arise in that so you
probably are aware or maybe you're not
aware that the u.s is perpetually short
on donated organs and there's a few
reasons for this
organs can only be used in less than one
percent of deaths the dying process
typically ruins
organs so if you die a prolonged death
on a ventilator or anything like that
you are usually not
your organs aren't
suited for
transplant for donation or
transplantation
typically the things that
get organ donors are car crashes strokes
motorcycle crashes don't tell my wife i
drive a motor driven cycle it's the
smallest uh
least powerful moped or
they just come scooters now that you can
get it only will go 34 with the wind at
my back uh but i drive it to school and
stuff like that but don't tell my wife
but those are the usual places that you
get uh the organ donors from car crashes
strokes anything sudden like that so
that it doesn't destroy the uh
sort of the organs but the us even with
that is really really short on organ
donors specifically and there's several
reasons for this a lot of people are
hesitant to sign up for being an organ
donor
they there's this really weird myth out
there and i guarantee you if there are
any
emts in this class or
people who know emts in this class they
will
tell you absolutely that this is not
true but people think there is a myth
that people think that a an emt or a
doctor will take out your wallet see
that you're an organ donor and then not
treat you and save your life
that is not true
again if you've met an emt
i'm going to make a generalization about
empties they are usually adrenaline
junkies and
they and i know a lot of emts i am very
close to emts and they will
they don't they don't want anybody to
die on them they want to get them to the
hospital they don't care what's in your
wallet they will give chest compressions
to a half a torso they don't care is it
whatever an emt sees at the scene their
goal is to get that to the hospital
alive
they will never look in your wallet and
say this is an organ donor i'm not going
to
give
resuscitation to this person uh surgeons
similarly er doctors similarly i have a
really close friend who's an er doctor
never will they look and say oh as an
organ donor i'm not going to treat this
person they like to see
how
far gone
off somebody is and they can bring them
back to life
i will let other emts and people in the
medical profession comment on this in
the class but believe me that is a
terrible myth
that if you are an organ donor emergency
medical workers will not try to save you
so that they can get the organs that is
not how they work they don't care about
organ donation they want to get you
alive someplace if
and only if they cannot keep you alive
that's when they will care about organ
donation
now as we discuss the ethics of organ
donation i want you to consider the
claim of a person in organ failure
so
there are people who
have uh are in a
hospital right now with their organs
failing and they're gonna die without
that organ um so i don't want us to only
think about this the ethical issue from
the donor side but the rights and the
claims of the people who are going
through uh organ failure right now um
and and who will die
without
some kind of organ um an organ that
either either a dead person can give
them or that a
live person who can live without it
because we'll talk about different types
of
organ donation and by the way just so
that i can mention that as a side note
if you're not an organ donor please be
one uh i am i don't uh know if i have my
license readily available to you but i'm
definitely an organ well i don't wanna
show uh everything but you can see my
little
donor
thing right there and so i am an organ
donor i highly encourage everybody to be
one as well
so let's talk about the ethics of organ
donation and then we're going to get
into the sale of human organs which i
think is a really interesting topic
do the dead have rights over their
organs the organs they're not going to
use anymore it's widely agreed that we
have rights over our body while we're
living we can refuse medical treatment
you know a doctor can say take two
aspirin and call me in the morning we
can say take two of these you never call
me you know we don't have to do anything
our doctors say we can refuse medical
treatment
um it's wrong to imprison somebody when
no laws are broken we have that right
over our body and those kinds of things
and so it's widely agreed widely agreed
in among ethicists and others that we
have a right over our body while living
it's a little less agreed on that we
have posthumous rights um that we have
rights over our body after we dead the
person is dead
so we can't be harmed right um so if i
am dead you can't harm me by taking one
of my organs
we may argue something like if we wanted
to try to talk about posthumous things
we may argue that the fear and trauma of
having our dead body
violated can harm a person while living
and so maybe if we know that if we die
someone will do something to our bodies
we don't want maybe that causes this
trauma while we're living um and and so
that would be a bit of um
of a right right that we would say well
sure when i'm dead i don't need the
organs so you really can't harm me by
taking them
but if i know you're going to take
while i'm living if i know you're going
to take my organs then that will cause
me trauma um
so
and
but keep in mind what i said in the
beginning think about the claims of the
person with the organ failure so it
seems that people in need of a
life-saving transplant have a more
serious claim to the dead person's organ
than i might have while i'm living so
let's say that i'm scared i'm not but
let's say that i would be scared of
having my organs taken when i die
there's another person who will die
without my organ
and that person has an ethical right too
if i'm if it's just gonna rot and it's
not gonna do anything for me the person
living seems like they have an ethical
claim too so i might have an ethical
claim yes that i want don't want my body
treated a certain way after i die um
that's that's an ethical claim but think
about how much more powerful the ethical
claim of the person who is will die
without that organ would be right and so
we have to think of both people so a
consequentialist argument which we've
talked about consequentialism is that
people dying or being saved are more
important than the trivial fears of the
living or the rights of a dead person to
the organs so remember the
consequentialist said you have to do the
thing that maximizes happiness or
reduces suffering this would do both
right and so
yes we take into account my fears of
what will happen to my body after uh i'm
dead we could take that into account
but we also have to take into account
the people who will would be saved if i
donated those organs and if you're
looking at this as a consequentialist
where we're talking about maximizing
value maximizing happiness then it seems
clear that those people have a stronger
right than my little
trivial fears about uh
what was going to happen to my organs
after i died right so there you there's
one ethical issue
another ethical issue and there's
several with donation that we'll be
talking about is that in most places um
there is the family has a right to veto
the donor decisions of the person
so i am an organ donor you saw that um
but what will happen is if i'm in a car
accident or a motor motor driven cycle
accident on my little scooter um if i'm
in
an accident like that
then they will ask my family first even
though it says donor on my
license they'll ask my family first and
they almost never take organs against
the family's wishes even if
i volunteered to be a donor now that's
not a legal thing
legally i've volunteered and the organ
can be taken but the hospitals don't
want to do that
the hospitals don't want to
take an organ
when the family doesn't want it because
it's terrible publicity terrible
publicity for everybody involved and so
they don't usually do that they usually
almost always go with the family's
decision now remember most donors most
people who are eligible to be donors die
in sudden traumas and the and it's very
unexpected to the family so they're
under intense stress and they're often
not ready to let go of their loved ones
and let their organs be used and so
this results in a lot of times families
will override the decisions of the
donors to
give their organs
now we might wonder why are we counting
the interests of the donor families over
the interest of the person
in organ failure remember there's a
other person over here who's dying and
why would we care about the say my
family members wishes over
the other uh the dying person plus
families can disagree uh think about
just the religious and political
disagreements that you often have in
family i for instance wouldn't trust my
parents for this i'm not religious and
they're extremely religious
i have a family member
through marriage
whose
parents have very different views of
death and life-saving
measures than they do
my my family member through marriage uh
would like to be
you know
not have to go through a lot of
suffering but her parents are very very
um
catholic and they
believe that you should fight every for
every ounce of time you have and so they
have very difference and so they they
disagree families disagree within
themselves with the uh with the donor
all of those kinds of things
but consider what would happen if the
family vetoes overridden remember i told
you it's bad publicity um bad publicity
for the hospital but the family could
also fuel fears that organs are being
taken against the person's will when
they still had a chance to live so let's
say that there's a trauma and um you're
and the doctor comes in and says you're
uh
husband is an organ donor
and uh we were we have he would be
compatible for this other person and my
wife says no he i think he could still
live and they said no he really doesn't
have a chance to live anymore let's do
the donation and they do it against the
family's will
people could break my wife could raise a
big ruckus to say he could have lived
and they took his chance to
life away and then that could reduce
we're talking about consequentialism
again that could reduce the number of
people who are willing to be donors if
they think if that perpetuates the myth
that doctors will take your organs when
you have a chance to live and so that
could result in a worse thing if we
didn't respect the family vetoes so it's
a very complicated issue
let's talk about a third issue i'm
going a lot longer than i plan to in
this one um
about the systems of donations the
opt-in system versus the opt out system
so in many countries for example in
europe
there are a lot more organ donations
because they have what's known as an
opt-out system versus the opt-in system
that the us
has so when you go to the dmv to get an
id card or a license you have to say
whether or not you want to be a donor
you have to volunteer to be a donor in
other countries it's assumed you will be
a donor unless you say i do not want to
be a donor you can still opt out right
but you but
far fewer people do it's this weird
thing that just checking the box uh
makes that big of a difference to say no
i do not want to be a donor uh people
don't do that and so opt out systems
are much more effective than opt-in
systems people can still have to worry
about having organs taken against their
will they can opt out anytime they want
but that seems to be uh the the big
difference that people are less likely
to take their names off a list than to
ask to be put on a list that's just
something weird about uh humans and so
uh in those countries doctors can assume
that the person is a donor whether or
not there's explicit proof because they
would have opted out they had the chance
to opt out otherwise
people could make their wishes known by
opting out so really the only worries
taking organs from someone who
who we really don't know what their
wishes would be
maybe they were too lazy to opt out but
otherwise it seems like a much better
system okay and i have to pick up the
other ethical issues in the next video
so we didn't finish this section but
i'll finish it in the next and then
start the another section too
Weitere ähnliche Videos ansehen
Organ Donation: Dead & Living Donation
N-108 HEth Lecture 8: Organ Donation and Transplantation
Selling Human Organs
Human Organs Debate | Vivienne Parry | Opposition
Global Blood Fund - Video 2 - UNDERSTANDING DONORS AND DONATION - Donor Recruiter Education
The MAN With 1000 KIDS Neflix| Jonathan Jacob Meijer| DUTCH SERIAL SPERM DONOR
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)