Eric Rakowski
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198240792
- eISBN:
- 9780191680274
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198240792.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter examines the real and hypothetical responses to questions related to a handicapped or diseased persons' entitlement of parts of others' bodies in order to remove their disabilities or ...
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This chapter examines the real and hypothetical responses to questions related to a handicapped or diseased persons' entitlement of parts of others' bodies in order to remove their disabilities or save their lives when the donor would not be similarly injured or endangered. The chapter endorses nonvoluntary post mortem transplants and the mandatory transfer of organs from live donors for the well-being of responsible adults in cases where the benefits would be large and the sacrifices demanded of donors not excessive. It then counters opponents of nonvoluntary transplants and finally concludes that compulsory renal or corneal transplants, as well as forced blood donations, are justifiable to redress significant inequalities if cadaver organs are unavailable and if potential recipients did not waived their right to receive an organ in exchange for a lessened risk of having to donate one of their own.Less
This chapter examines the real and hypothetical responses to questions related to a handicapped or diseased persons' entitlement of parts of others' bodies in order to remove their disabilities or save their lives when the donor would not be similarly injured or endangered. The chapter endorses nonvoluntary post mortem transplants and the mandatory transfer of organs from live donors for the well-being of responsible adults in cases where the benefits would be large and the sacrifices demanded of donors not excessive. It then counters opponents of nonvoluntary transplants and finally concludes that compulsory renal or corneal transplants, as well as forced blood donations, are justifiable to redress significant inequalities if cadaver organs are unavailable and if potential recipients did not waived their right to receive an organ in exchange for a lessened risk of having to donate one of their own.
Lesley A. Sharp
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780520277960
- eISBN:
- 9780520957152
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520277960.001.0001
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
The extraordinarily surgically successful realm of organ transplantation is plagued worldwide by the scarcity of donated human parts, a quandary that generates ongoing debates over the marketing of ...
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The extraordinarily surgically successful realm of organ transplantation is plagued worldwide by the scarcity of donated human parts, a quandary that generates ongoing debates over the marketing of organs, as patients die waiting for replacements. These widespread anxieties within and beyond medicine over organ scarcity inspire seemingly futuristic trajectories in other fields. Especially prominent, longstanding, and promising domains include xenotransplantation, or efforts to cull organs from animals for human use, and bioengineering, a field peopled with “tinkerers” intent on designing implantable mechanical devices, where the heart is of special interest. Scarcity, suffering, and sacrifice are pervasive and, seemingly, inescapable themes that frame the transplant imaginary. Xenotransplant experts and bioengineers at work in labs in five Anglophone countries share a marked determination to eliminate scarcity and human suffering, certain that their efforts might one day altogether eliminate any need for parts of human origin. A premise that drives Sharp’s compelling ethnographic project is that high-stakes experimentation inspires moral thinking, informing scientists’ determination to redirect the surgical trajectory of transplantation and, ultimately, alter the integrity of the human form.Less
The extraordinarily surgically successful realm of organ transplantation is plagued worldwide by the scarcity of donated human parts, a quandary that generates ongoing debates over the marketing of organs, as patients die waiting for replacements. These widespread anxieties within and beyond medicine over organ scarcity inspire seemingly futuristic trajectories in other fields. Especially prominent, longstanding, and promising domains include xenotransplantation, or efforts to cull organs from animals for human use, and bioengineering, a field peopled with “tinkerers” intent on designing implantable mechanical devices, where the heart is of special interest. Scarcity, suffering, and sacrifice are pervasive and, seemingly, inescapable themes that frame the transplant imaginary. Xenotransplant experts and bioengineers at work in labs in five Anglophone countries share a marked determination to eliminate scarcity and human suffering, certain that their efforts might one day altogether eliminate any need for parts of human origin. A premise that drives Sharp’s compelling ethnographic project is that high-stakes experimentation inspires moral thinking, informing scientists’ determination to redirect the surgical trajectory of transplantation and, ultimately, alter the integrity of the human form.
