What are the ethical issues and problems in organ transplantation?

issues for discussion

How about all of this 'organ stealing' stuff, and cadavar theft?
There are too many 'good' reasons not to do it..I just think they should pay you, in advance, for the organ you will donate when you pass on. Seems logical and a good way to keep the organs coming...then again, if you paid someone for a liver and they became an alcoholic....

I didn't know there were any issues with organ trasplantation.

The only real problem with organ donation is that there will never be enough donor organs to meet the need. I personally don't see any ethical issues. The reasons orgams are not paid for is to prevent things like black marketing and to avoid even the appearance of preferrential treatment.

The organs belong to a dead person.

The main issues for Muslim is - does the donation came from the your relative?

In the UK you have to opt-in to organ donation by going on a register, carrying a card and even then your next of kin has the final desision weather or not YOU give YOUR organs to benefit others. Even if you are on the register and carry a card, if they refuse your wishes are disregarded.

I feel that people should be automatically put on the register and it taken for red that they will donate their organs - they could opt-out of the system very easily.

The amount of people who you say their wishes would be to donate but have done nothing about it is astronomical. No-one likes to think that they will be leave us soon but if the descision was already made with the option of opting out I feel it would be easier on the health service and patients families. If religion or other beliefs are an issue people can always opt-out of the system.

I think the main issues would be:
1. some people believe you have to be complete to go to the next life
2. there would be people, family members, etc. who would be upset that their relative has been cut up. some would consider it a violation of the body.

One main ethical problem is that God made man, and man made machine.So man can repair machine which is fair enough.But the idea of ("materia medica")repairing human`s,Is like claiming to be God,Which is immoral and unethical.

I used to think No way I could never do that I thought it was awful. But then I had two children. I just knew if one of them needed a transplant I would want them to have it. So If the organs are no use to you any more don't waste them. You or your family may need an organ some day. All families should sit down and each one make it clear to be a donor or not. The rest of the family should abide by their wishes. Then you can go on about your life. On a lighter note I hope you have a long healthy life.

I tend to feel that there is nothing ethical about saving a life. So if organ transplantation is life saving, end of story .

that is a very sad and personal question 2 post! I have 2 say that I personally think it is unethical not 2 carry a donor card but that again is a personal opinion I also believe if u carry a donor card nobody should be able 2 try and change that choice !!!!!! I carry a card and know that my after death wishes would be honoured as I have discussed this issue with my family carry a card pleeeeese

wheteher someone else should be given the right to live from someone dying - how should the family feel etc?
i dont see any problem with it though - other than the relegious implications - ie jehovahs witnesses.

You may donate your organs anonymously. the person receiving the organ might be someone you don't want to receive it. Would you have given George Best your Liver?

The thick tissues around organ transplants are probably muscles

As long as the donors would have died anyway and have volunteered whilst alive I don't see any problem.

If Doctors had to choose over quality of life, say is it worth keeping him alive when we could take his organs and save several other people, then it gets difficult.

Also where poorer people donate say kidney for money then there are ethical issues there.

Well,it's a bit far away from what you're asking,but there's a show on a TV channel about a woman whose husband was killed and she chose to donate his heart to another man,and after years she meets this other man and falls in love with him and thinks it might be because she has her former husband's heart.Now that could raise an ethical problem about organ transplants!

I THINK IF U CONSENT TO IT BY CARRYING A DONOR CARD THEN YOUR WISHES SHOULD BE GRANTED. IT SHOULDNT BE LEFT TO FAMILY ONCE YOU HAVE AGREED BY USING A DONOR CARD

'Ethical issues' - interesting. 'Problems' - well - the biggest problem is a suitable match/rejection.

'Ethics'? I don't believe there are any - but clearly others do. I can 'understand' in terms of 'donation'/card carrying - though I do carry a card.

I think the fundamental issue is: should you die, before your time, would you 'object' to someone in need benefitting? Whether that be 'George Best' or a child/ a young man with his whole life ahead/a young woman with a baby.

Here are some thoughts:
I know someone whose son was mugged and his kidney stolen. He woke up with a knife wound and didn't realise till he was checked out. This was in the UK.

A report last week revealed evidence of characteristics of the donor being transferred which seems kinda spooky and sounds like one of those horror movies... someone had a heart transplant from a professional artist and he was suddenly really good at painting. He was pathetic at it before. They showed the kind of thing he was drawing before the operation and after. It was really strange. Another example is the woman who was afraid of heights who had a transplant from a climber and is now a climber herself. Weird!

I don't think it is an ethical issue, unless you are talking about the occasional rumours of doctors allowing people to die when an organ is desperately needed.

I think the main problem is that not enough people agree to be organ donors. If there were more organs available, the ethical issues as far as organ 'stealing' would go away as there would be enough legitimate sources. I personally am a donor and find it hard to understand why a person wouldn't be. I'll be dead, I certainly won't need my organs anymore, so what could be better than allowing someone a new lease of life if mine has to end? I carry a donor card and have discussed it with my family. They would never object to my being a donor as they know it is my wish.

If i die and donate my organs i save the lives of a few people, if i don't donate then they may die. as i have nothing to lose and tey haver everything to gain it is selfish not to donate, perhaps unethical to condemn others to die through inaction.

Once I am dead anyone can take what they want, its no use to me

My personal feelings are this: If out of my death, I can give the gift of life, sight, easy breathing, no more dialysis, new skin and in other ways I can't imagine, then I will go to the afterlife a very happy person, feeling that my death was not futile so to speak.
My family know my wishes, many of them feel the same.

As very few of us (Humans) really believe in our own and our close kin folks mortality, we tend to distrust anyone who informs us of a loved ones certain approaching demise whilst asking for our consent to donate their precious organs... "are you absolutely certain"?, "isn't there just the slightest chance you have got it wrong"? you might hear yourself praying when faced with such a heart breaking question.
Also since we have been brought-up to protect life and abhor those that take life... perhaps someone may be forgiven for refusing to donate a persons vital organs knowing that certain death would follow if the surgeons had got it wrong, or as we hear from time to time... the wrong patient, or limb or eye has been removed...

Far too many to list here!!!