The Ethics of Transplants: Why Careless Thought Costs Lives Book

Few would doubt that organ transplantation is a magnificent medical advance. Many of the moral problems raised by transplantation are similar to other areas of advanced medicine: for instance, how to ration an expensive treatment fairly and treat those most in need. However, it has one set of distinctive problems: every organ given to one person must come from another. For every recipient there must be a donor, and the moral problems particular to transplantation are nearly all concerned with the procurement of organs. For this reason transplantation has a very interesting and prominent position in public debate. Most of the arguments about medicine focus on the interest of patients and the availability of treatments, but in the case of transplantation the emphasis of the debate shifts to the rights of the source of the organs. The subject stretches into questions of political philosophy regarding individual rights, ownership, and social obligations. Should organ selling be prohibited entirely? Should we have a system of presumed consent unless the dead person has opted out? Should you be allowed to decide who should get your organs? Are brain-dead patients really dead? In this important exploration of a highly emotive and topical issue, Janet Radcliffe Richards, the leading moral philosopher and author of The Sceptical Feminist, does not look at specific details of clinical practice or policy, but dissects the commonly raised arguments concerning organ procurement from the living and the dead, as well as the care of the dying. This sharp analysis demonstrates the importance of clear thinking and informed public debate on policies of the widest public relevance.