Bioethics Discussion Blog: Organ Donation: Who, How,Why and also What are the Ethics? (3)

REMINDER: I AM POSTING A NEW TOPIC ABOUT ONCE A WEEK OR PERHAPS TWICE A WEEK. HOWEVER, IF YOU DON'T FIND A NEW TOPIC POSTED, THERE ARE AS OF MARCH 2013 OVER 900 TOPIC THREADS TO WHICH YOU CAN READ AND WRITE COMMENTS. I WILL BE AWARE OF EACH COMMENTARY AND MAY COME BACK WITH A REPLY.

TO FIND A TOPIC OF INTEREST TO YOU ON THIS BLOG, SIMPLY TYPE IN THE NAME OR WORDS RELATED TO THE TOPIC IN THE FIELD IN THE LEFT HAND SIDE AT TOP OF THE PAGE AND THEN CLICK ON “SEARCH BLOG”. WITH WELL OVER 900 TOPICS, MOST ABOUT GENERAL OR SPECIFIC ETHICAL ISSUES BUT NOT NECESSARILY RELATED TO ANY SPECIFIC DATE OR EVENT, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO FIND WHAT YOU WANT. IF YOU DON’T PLEASE WRITE TO ME ON THE FEEDBACK THREAD OR BY E-MAIL DoktorMo@aol.com

IMPORTANT REQUEST TO ALL WHO COMMENT ON THIS BLOG: ALL COMMENTERS WHO WISH TO SIGN ON AS ANONYMOUS NEVERTHELESS PLEASE SIGN OFF AT THE END OF YOUR COMMENTS WITH A CONSISTENT PSEUDONYM NAME OR SOME INITIALS TO HELP MAINTAIN CONTINUITY AND NOT REQUIRE RESPONDERS TO LOOK UP THE DATE AND TIME OF THE POSTING TO DEFINE WHICH ANONYMOUS SAID WHAT. Thanks. ..Maurice

FEEDBACK,FEEDBACK,FEEDBACK! WRITE YOUR FEEDBACK ABOUT THIS BLOG, WHAT IS GOOD, POOR AND CONSTRUCTIVE SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT TO THIS FEEDBACK THREAD

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Organ Donation: Who, How,Why and also What are the Ethics? (3)

In the last post, I quoted UNOS ethics committee from their white paper presenting a view for discussion about having convicted criminals as recipients of organ donations. I have found the following UNOS statement which was published by their News Bureau to clarify their stand on the issue of organ recipients. I presume this statement, dated February 6, 2002, represents their present stand. ..Maurice.


UNOS Statement
February 6, 2002 Contact: UNOS News Bureau (804) 327-1432
Prison Status and Organ AllocationRecent news coverage of a prison inmate in California receiving a heart transplant has sparked interest across the country. The United Network for Organ Sharing feels that some clarification on how the nation’s organ sharing system works would be helpful.

· The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) coordinates the nation’s Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) under contract with the US Department of Health and Human Service.· The OPTN was created in 1986 under the auspices of the National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA). NOTA is a federal law, which outlawed the sale of human organs. It also specifies that the OPTN establish medical criteria for organ allocation. Medical criteria for organ allocation include compatibility of the donor and the recipient and medical urgency.

· Social criteria such as celebrity status, wealth, or prison status, are excluded from medical criteria and therefore are not permitted in consideration of organ allocation. Federal law permits use of medical criteria, not social criteria in organ allocation policies.

· The transplant community allows the evaluation of prisoners for transplant candidacy because prison status is a social worth distinction, not related to medical treatment of disease. Based on medical criteria, transplant programs decide whether to accept any individual patient for treatment. The evaluation does not include social criteria such as criminal or prison status, employment or wealth. It does include the likelihood of survival and of patient compliance with long term medication requirements to prevent rejection.

· Being listed on the UNOS national patient waiting list for organ transplant does not guarantee any candidate an organ

· The OPTN/UNOS Ethics Committee is on record as saying that criminal or prison status, in and of itself, should not restrict consideration of a potential transplant candidate. Prison status is most often temporary. Most prisoners eventually get out of jail through due process. A decision to provide or withhold lifesaving medical treatment for a prisoner is permanent and may not come under any due process.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home