Discussion about the organ transplantation: An irreconcilable conflict

Résumé du document

According to the United Kingdom (UK) Transplant website , 9000 people in this country are currently in need of an organ transplant. However less than 3000 transplants are performed each year. What is true at the scale of the UK is also verified worldwide. There is an important lack of organs. Transplantation seems to be a sort of a medical miracle . In brief it consists of receiving organs from someone else to make them ours. More specifically organ transplant is the transfer of an entire organ from a donor person alive or already dead to a recipient. The transplantation implies connecting the new organ to the nervous and circulatory systems of the recipient. Performing such an operation is, most of the time, a question of life saving, the unique chance for the patient to survive. In some cases however it can also be used to improve the comfort life of a patient. This is particularly true in the case of cornea transplant.

Life is not threatened by the disease but people can have their life improved by having their sight restored. However, organ donation should not be confused with the donation of body products such as sperm and eggs. Indeed these donations do not distort the body definitively whereas the organ donation does. Even though, the question of the In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) viewed as organ transplantation could be discussed.

Extraits

[...] In other words the question rises: can the organ supply be optimised to the detriment of the respect of human autonomy and ethical standards? There is an obvious conflict in the current legal regime ruling the organ transplantation. Giving an organ is a personal decision, which has to be encouraged but not forced. It has to be a personal free choice. The consent is essential as a demonstration of the autonomy of the donor. It is protected by the legislation and by the high medical authorities such as the Human Tissue Authority. [...]

[...] There are two types of life support, the elective ventilation and the artificial ventilation. The first one occurs in intensive care units and consists in brief period of ventilation before confirmation of brain stem death and harvesting of organs”[16]. The aim of this procedure is to preserve the organs when brain stem death has not been declared. At the opposite, the artificial ventilation is considered as a treatment and it is effectuated in the best interest of the patient. The elective ventilation process increases the number of donors because it manages to preserve the organs but it raises ethical issues[17]. [...]

[...] Discussion about the organ transplantation: An irreconcilable conflict According to the United Kingdom Transplant website[1] persons in this country are currently in need of an organ transplant. However less than 3000 transplants are performed each year. What is true at the scale of the UK is also verified worldwide. There is an important lack of organs. Transplantation seems to be a sort of medical miracle[2]. In brief it consists of receiving organs from someone else to make them ours. More specifically organ transplant is the transfer of an entire organ from a donor person alive or already dead to a recipient. [...]

[...] ( 1996 ) Pig, The Transplant Surgeon and The Nuffield Council” 4 Medical Law Review pp250-269 Erin & Harris, ( 2003) ethical market in human organs” 29 Journal of Medical Ethics pp137-138 Gannon, W. (2003) the sick have a right to cadaveric organs?” Journal of Medical Ethics 29 pp153–156 Genetic Interest Group, Human Bodies, Human Choices, A Response from the Genetic Interest Group (Genetic Interest Group, 2004). Herring, J. & Chau P-L. (2007) Body, Your Body, Our Bodies” Medical Law Review 15 Morris, P.J. (2004) “Transplantation A Medical Miracle of the 20th Century” New England Journal of Medicine 351(26) pp2678-80. Morrison, D. [...]

[...] This is why there is no way organ donation could become compulsory. The respect of the people's freedom and human autonomy is not compatible with such an obligation. This is not acceptable morally[19]. It would deny the existing relationships between humans and their bodies. The main regulations ruling the topic of organs transplantations are the Human Organ Transplants Act 1989 and the Human Tissue Act 2004. The latter was elaborate after the scandals in 1999-2000 about the retain of dead children part was a common practice at Bristol Royal Infirmary and the Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital (Alder Hey). [...]