Determining Who Should Receive An Organ Transplant Can

Determining who should receive an organ transplant can be a tricky and difficult task. According to the UNOS, the company that maintains the organ transplant list, there are various factors that are under consideration when an organ is available. Things like blood type, tissue type, medical urgency, and proximity to the donor are all taken into consideration; factors like age, income, or racial/ethnic background are not even taken into consideration. Furthermore, the transplant list is more like a pool than a list. So, if one patient hits more criteria than another patient, then he or she will receive the organ, regardless of their status (â€Å"The Gift of a Lifetime†). While this system may seem slow or flawed, it allows patients the†¦show more content†¦One of the patients’, Patient A, limb failed due to a freak car accident where he was t-boned by a drunk driver. On the other hand, Patient B’s limb failed due to heroin addiction, an outcome he was fu lly aware of as an avid user. Now, who deserves the limb transplant? If we just consider the distributive norm of need in our definition of distributive justice, we will be stuck at an impasse. Because both Patients A and B are both in dire straits, we can say that they both a have strong claim to the scarce good in question. However, if we consider including the distributive norm of equity in the definition of distributive justice, this problem can be remedied. The norm is equity is as follows: a person’s claim to a scarce good should be dependent on how much of a role he or she plays in the outcome (Anderson). In other words, this would mean that those who work harder deserve a larger share of outcome than those who do not put in as much effort. In the case of organ transplants, we can apply this norm as the following: a patient’s claim to an organ is dependent on how little of a role they play in their need for a transplant. This essentially means that those who pla y a less active role in harm caused to their organs have a better claim than those who are actively damaging their organs. Now, applying this norm to our definition of distributive justice, we will be able to determine that Patient A is more deserving of the limb transplantShow MoreRelatedThe Contribution Of An Organ Transplant1184 Words   |  5 Pages An organ transplant â€Å"is a surgical operation where a failing or damaged organ in the human body is removed and replaced with a new one† (Center for Bioethics). The first organ transplant was provided in 1954, where a kidney was taken from one identical brother to another, lasting for eight years. Eventually more successful organ transplants began to occur such as in 1962 the first cadaveric transplant was a success prolonging life for almost two years. 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