Is it wrong to take Baby Teresa's life so she can donate her organs to others in need even though she can only live for a few days? Although some might argue that it is morally wrong to take an innocent person's life, she could be saving many others' lives by donating her organs. I will be defending the Benefits Argument in this paper, and I will argue that transplanting the organs will indeed benefit other children. I will first present a general overview of the Baby Teresa case, and then I will present the facts to my Benefits Argument. I will then present an opposing argument, how someone would attack my views, and then I will defend my argument from the objection. Finally, in the conclusion I will give certain highlights and …show more content…
Baby Teresa died 9 days after her birth and because her organs were so badly deteriorated, it was too late for other children because her organs could not be transplanted. (Rachels, pg. 1-2)
My argument for the transplant of her organs is the Benefits Argument. My view is that because Baby Teresa was going to die soon and the transplant would not cause her pain because her brain is missing, her organs were doing her no good. She would not be able to have a life even if she did survive, carry on any activities, have thoughts, feelings, and relations with other people. In contrast, if she would gain from keeping her life, then transplanting her organs would be wrong. My argument is as follows: Since the transplant can benefit someone without harming others, we ought to do so. The organs would certainly benefit others without harming Baby Teresa, so therefore we should take her organs. This argument is sound because the premises are true and the conclusion logically follows the premise. It is important that the intention of the transplant is to benefit other children; otherwise taking Baby Teresa's life would be wrong. (Rachels, pg. 3)
An objection to my argument would be that although we assume that Baby Teresa's organs can help benefit others, what if it cannot? My Benefits Argument will show to be invalid if her organs or blood type did not match any recipients. It is unlikely that her organs or blood type do not match, but there is that possibility.
Consequentialist is a theory that could possibly support the decision, consequentialist theories are when something is deemed as right or wrong by strictly looking at the consequences of the action. If you to look at the consequences of the Simons family deciding to only have the organs of their son donated to Caucasians, the consequences are still good. Even though some ethnicities did not benefit, the organs donated were still benefitting some people and saving lives. I do believe it is better to save some lives even if they are all Caucasian because there is still a benefit. You are doing more harm than good if you deny the organ donations because Caucasians that are in desperate need of an organ are still receiving a
“Altruism is the sole legitimate impulse behind organ donation” (…..), the onetime best U.S best seller further argued that altruistic acts are important qualities of human relationships in a society. Satel carefully cleared doubts of the notion that compensating donors will commodify the body and dehumanize us, she believes that its better to legalize organ donation than allow people suffer and die.
In this paper I am going to critically evaluate “A Defense of Abortion” by Judith Thompson, a moral philosopher and metaphysician, who argues that is morally okay to abort a fetus even if the fetus is considered a person and contrast it to another moral philosopher and utilitarian, Peter Singer who deems her argument to be flawed.
Today we are in great need of a solution to solve the problem of the shortage of human organs available for transplant. The website for Donate Life America estimates that in the United States over 100 people per day are added to the current list of over 100,000 men, women, and children that are waiting for life-saving transplants. Sadly enough, approximately 18 people a day on that list die just because they cannot outlive the wait for the organ that they so desperately need to survive. James Burdick, director of the Division of Transplantation for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services confirms, “The need for organ transplants continues to grow and this demand continues to outpace the supply of transplantable organs”. The
In the article “Death’s Waiting List” Sally Satel argues that the sale of organs should be allowed in the U.S. She hopes to convince the reader that the only guarantee of getting a transplant is to skip the wait list and just buy one. Although Satel makes a good argument she seems very biased and provides biased evidence to support her claims.
Another utilitarian argument is that donating and selling the argument is essentially the same thing however the donor receives a greater good and happiness in one situation than in the other. If the donor donates his or her organ without receiving any sort of compensation they leave only with the idea that they have helped someone and saved their life. However, in the other situation where the donor receives a compensation for donating their organ, the donor then leaves knowing not only that they helped someone, but they also receive a compensation to make them happy but to also encourage others to donate their organs as well. Therefore, the idea of having a waiting list will slowly diminish. The only way to better the economy as a whole would also be supported by the rich who would be spending money to receive an organ.
Organ donation was first started in 1954, december 24th by Dr. Joseph Murray and Dr. David Hume in Boston at Brigham Hospital this was also the first successful kidney transplant and after this many other transplants became successful like the first lung transplant 9 years after the first kidney transplant and this transplant was done by Dr. James Hardy at the university of Mississippi medical center, now it has become a pretty common practice and it saves many lives today. In 1984 they passed the National Organ Transplant Act to help organ matchmaking to make it easier to find a match for people which helps improve the quality of the service, and before this act there was another one 16 years before that act and this act was called The Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (UAGA) and that made the legal foundation for organ transplanted and it stated that organs and tissue could be donated through document of gift and this made what could and couldn't happen in organ transplantation, basically the start of the legal way of organ transplants. 19 years after the passing the UAGA they made a revision of it which made it where when a person gives consent to give a organ before death it is now irrevocable meaning that it could not be taken back meaning it will happen, a while after they updated this act again in 2006 and made little changes again about consent being revoked. Throughout the years there were many changes to the laws of organ transplant and a lot of the laws made it better
To begin with, Thomson uses a thought experiment about a hypothetical famous violinist, to further her argument that abortion is morally permissible. In this thought experiment, you are kidnapped and unconsciously plugged to a famous violinist so that your kidney can remove toxins from the violinist’s kidney and ultimately save his life. Thomson argues that you are not required to stay plugged to the famous violinist even if unplugging yourself from the violinist would result in his death. Thomson argues that while everyone has the right to life, no one has the right to dictate what happens to another person 's body.
The first argument for this position expands upon the statistics already mentioned. There is no question that many more organs are needed than are available. Indeed, it is not merely organs that can be transplanted. One's corneas and tissues can also be harvested to improve lives, if not to save them. Now it can be objected that there is already a process in place for organ donation. People can volunteer to be organ donors. This is of course true. In fact, in some cases organs-such as kidneys and lungs-can be transplanted even if the donor is not deceased. However, the gap between the organs available through voluntary donation and the need for life-saving
In February 2003, 17-year-old Jesica Santillan received a heart-lung transplant at Duke University Hospital that went badly awry because, by mistake, doctors used donor organs from a patient with a different blood type. The botched operation and subsequent unsuccessful retransplant opened a discussion in the media, in internet chat rooms, and in ethicists' circles regarding how we, in the United States, allocate the scarce commodity of organs for transplant. How do we go about allocating a future for people who will die without a transplant? How do we go about denying it? When so many are waiting for their shot at a life worth living, is it fair to grant multiple organs or multiple
In a world where life expectancy has increased tremendously over the last century because of new technology and medical procedures, we find humanity ever pushing the boundaries on what it can do to prevent loss of life where possible. One example is the area of organ donation and transplantation. However, unlike many other technologies or procedures which can be built, manufactured, or learned, organ transplantation requires one thing that we can’t create yet: an organ itself. Because our increased life span causes more people to require a replacement organ when theirs starts to fail, the demand has far outrun the supply and the future only looks to get worse. “Between the years 1988 and 2006 the number of transplants doubled, but the
Proponents of financial compensation for organ donors argue that it’s legal to be paid for donating reproductive material, and they suggest that organs should be handled in the same manner. The obvious difference, however, is that inability to conceive a child isn’t life-threatening. Healthy organs for transplant are limited, and recipients must be carefully selected to ensure that the transplant is successful. Imagine the moral chaos that would ensue if organs were sold to the highest bidder.
Organ transplantation is a medical act which involves the surgical operating by transferring or removing of an organ from one person to the other, or placing the organ of a donor into the body of a recipient for the replacement of the recipients damaged or failed organ which resulted from impairment of normal physiological function affecting part or all of an organism or an act that causes someone to receive physical damage.
Organ donations not only save lives but also money and time. If organ donations became prevalent the organ recipient would no longer need dialysis. Since there is no need for dialysis the cost to use the machine would lessen; this means that the cost of equipment would decrease, saving the hospital and insurance company’s money. More lives would be saved as well as benefit from those that no longer need an organ. In the book titled “Elements of Bioethics” adult organ transplants are only that have medical insurance. If organs are taken from recently deceased the cost for those that has no medical coverage was lessen. The process of organ transplantation is life changing and time is crucial. With shorter waiting time it would put ease on the person’s heart to know that this lifesaving event would happen sooner rather than later. In addition, when the organ is taken from the recently deceased the risk would be eliminated from
According to United Network for Organ Sharing (2010) organ donations and transplantation are the removal of organs and tissues from one person and placed into another person’s body. The need for organ transplantation usually occurs when the recipient organ has failed (UNOS, 2010). Organ donation can save the lives of many individuals who are on the waiting list for an organ donation. Becoming an organ donor can be a difficult decision. Many people have the false beliefs about being an organ donor. An example would be if organ donor is on their driver’s license and a person is in a life-threatening accident everything will not be done to save their life. There is an increase need for organ donors and unfortunately the need for organ