Organ Donation & Transplantation

Since the first successful organ transplant in 1954, the transplantation of organs and tissues has enabled thousands of individuals increased longevity by replacing diseased or damaged organs and tissues. The great need for organ transplants (with demand far exceeding available organs for the over 100,000 on the U.S. national transplant waiting list) has introduced issues surrounding the allocation of organs, and the meeting of this great need through issues of consent, dead donor determination, for-profit models of organ transplantation, organ trafficking & medical tourism, synthetic & artificial organs, xenotransplantation, the possibility of bioengineered and/or 3D printed organs, and even the potential for fetal organ farming.

SUGGESTED RESOURCES

• Michael Sleasman, “Bioethics Past, Present, and Future: Important Signposts in Human Dignity” (An overview of bioethics and the breadth of issues it encompasses).
• Edward Grant, “Organ Donation and Transplantation: Can Law Resolve the Dilemma of Scarcity?”
• Michael Shafer and Paige Comstock Cunningham, “Medical Exploitation and Black Market Organs: Profiteering and Disparities in Global Medicine.”
• Michael Sleasman and Paige Comstock Cunningham, “Exploitation in the Global Medical Enterprise: Bioethics & Social Injustice.”
• Ferdinand Yates, “Donor after Cardiac Death: What Is the Christian’s Response?”
• Gregory Rutecki, “Sharing Scarce Organs with Others: Designating Donation as a Model of Giving.”