Organ donating is a decision that a person general makes once they get their driver’s license. For some people, its an easy decision either they don’t want to do it or they would quickly sign the back of their license indicating that if anything happened to them that their organs can be given to someone that needs them. For others the decision is a more difficult one, and is based on religious beliefs and/or cultural influences. But what if the decision to donate an organ was for someone for a relative that was in a coma, considered brain dead, or that was kept alive in order to donate their organs? This paper explains the definition of a person that is considered brain dead and how you would react if you had to make the decision of whether to donate a person when they are still technically,alive.
What is brain death?
At one point or another, we all have to make difficult decision. One of the most difficult decisions is if you have to decide whether to donate someone’s else’s organs. The decision is an emotional and difficult one because you have to consider what the person’s would what to do, as well as if you are possibly ending a person’s life prematurely to save someone else’s. This is what generally happens when someone has had an accident. Unfortunately, almost immediately after the doctor tells you that there is nothing else can be done, does he ask if the person was an organ donor. As insensitive as it may seem at the time, it is a necessary question because organs start to die as soon as a person dies. Sometimes the person can be kept alive by a machine at the request of the family because they are in a coma or because they are considered brain dead.
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[Brain death is defined as the irreversible loss of function of the brain, including the brain stem. The most common causes of brain death in adults are traumatic brain injury and subarachnoid hemorrhage.] (Henneman and Karras) Many doctors explains that when a person is brain dead they are essential dead and that it is only a machine that is keeping them alive. The doctor gives this explanation to ease a person’s mind, if they are considering taking a person off life support and donating their organs.
There are four standards that doctors have to consider when diagnosing that a person is brain dead as well as the medical history of the patient and tests based on brain scans. The first standard is to identify the cause of the coma. The coma must then found to be irreversible and the performance of a clinical examination must be performed. Brain death is then final determined by the results and evaluation of “appropriate neurodiagnostic and laboratory tests.” (Henneman and Karras) However, the fact remains that even though a person may be brain dead, the person’s heart is still beating which makes the person still alive. This has led to a heated debate about the morality of donating organs. The morality of donating organs has recently been questioned further based on the fact that some physicians make sure that the heart is still beating-even though the patient might be dead enough to be classified as an appropriate organ donor.
Ethics and Moral thoughts about donating organs
There are several reasons why someone would choose not to donate their organs or are against organ donations. One reason a person would not donate their organs is because it may be against their religious beliefs. Roman Catholics believes that there must be a verification of and if [the separation of the body and life cannot be verified, or if there is doubt about the separation of the body and life, organ excision is morally prohibited and should not be allowed.] (Byrne)
Another reason why a person may not donate their organs is because it goes against their culture’s philosophy. People that follow Kant’s philosophy or Kant’s theory of ethics believe that the body doesn’t belong to them therefore it should be conserved. Therefore, “Kant’s forbid the sale and donation of one’s own organs, even if the donation is obtained without any coercion or friendly pressure applied upon the seller or donor.” (Merle) Still another reason why people are reluctant to donate their organs is because they feel pressured into doing it or that someone will take out their organs will they are still alive.
There are also some increasing concerns based on news reports that has led people to the decision of not donating their organs. One concern is the belief that there is the possibility that there is some sort of consciousness that is still present in a person that is in a coma or that is considered bread dead, therefore they are actually killing someone in order to take their organs.
Another increasing concern that, since society has established that donating organs is a beneficial procedure and who the recipients of the organs will be as well as the donors, that doctors may decide to take (organs from patients who are not dead at all but who are incapacitated or disabled) (Robinson) This is especially true in some countries where there is a black market on human body parts. These countries are especially dangerous because people are being paid a lot money to get healthy organs by any means necessary.
Conclusion
Donating organs is a wonderful thing to do for someone, however it causes a ethical and moral conflict for many religions. Most religions are opposed to murder and feel that as long as a person’s heart is beating that they are still alive. There’s a hope that the person will recover. It’s a difficult decision that many of us doesn’t want to make. Fortunately with the creation of a living will, a person can decide their faith as well as by signing the back of their drivers license.
- Merle, Jean-Christophe. “A Kantian Arguement for a Duty to Donate One’s Own Organs. A Reply to Nicole Gerrand.” Journal of Applied Philosophy 17.1 (2000): 1. Society for Applied Philosophy. Web.
- Robinson, B.A. “Human Organ Donation & Harvesting.” Ethics of Human Organ Donation and Harvesting. Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Web. 25 Sept. 2014.
