Ethical Issues in Organ Donation

[Instructor name]

[Course name]

Ethical Issues in Organ Donation

Introduction

Organ donation is an ethical issue. People are able to donate their organs once they have died. In addition, it is also possible to donate organs when living. This happens through the donation of one lobe of the lung, kidney, heart, intestines, and pancreas (Transplant Living, 2012). However, most of the organ donation is done through after the death donation. Consequently, the physicians are able to harvest the organs from donors and put them in those who deserve it.

Organ transplantation and donation became increasingly possible in the 1980s when relevant laws were passed that supported organ donation and transplantation. In addition, a national database was also established that was to track those who needed organs and those who provided the same. These laws fairly streamlined the process of donating and getting organs. However, it was also expected that the enacting of these laws would increase the availability of organs. Still, it was found that these laws did not necessarily increase organ donations in the United States.

The ethical problem in organ donation

The nursing issue and dilemma is whether the organs of a deceased should be used to harvest from the dead to implant in other needy person. The dilemma involves knowing the conditions under which it would be feasible to use the organs of the deceased. However, those who have passed their advance directives do not present a problem as they have the donor card. Still, physicians generally do not work on the donor card and instead require explicit approval from the next of kin of the deceased before proceeding with harvesting. Then, another problem arises when the organs of a body are removed in an autopsy by the forensic pathologists. These are only donated if the body is unknown with no relatives known. This could be contrary to the will of the deceased. Still, the law requires the autopsy conductors to remove the organs of bodies that are not claimed by anyone. This appears to be an ethical issue. The physicians do not support it.

In this case the will of the deceased conflicts with the will of the state. The state wants to harvest organs from the body while the deceased person might have never agreed to give his or her organs. Rather, the person did disagree with giving his or her organs, and the dead does not have a donor ...