TOURO UNIVERSITY INTERNATIONAL
MICHELLE LABRIE
BHS 365
MODULE 4
DR AFSHIN AFROOKTEH

Ethical Dilemmas The United Network for Organ sharing is also known as UNOS. This organization everyday helps persons who are terminally ill with transplants that range from kidneys to livers and many more. UNOS was discovered by the Coalition on Donation in 1992 to educate the population about organ and tissue donations. There are currently as of 4 June 2007 there were 96,589 candidates on the waiting list. The number of transplants that were successful between January and February were 4,425 as of May 25th 2007. The total number of donors during January and February were 2, 274 as of May 25th 2007. So as you can see many persons are waiting and many persons are donating to save the lives of others. The steps needed to follow be placed on the National Waiting List are as follows:
1. You have to receive a referral from your doctor.
2. You have to contact a transplant hospital.
3. You have to schedule an appointment for evaluation to see if you are an acceptable candidate for a transplant.
4. If your evaluation deems you are good candidates you will be added to the list.
Then you wait. It could be as long as years to receive the transplant. Many die each year waiting for a transplant. Some organs do not even make it to the patient in time. Sometimes with transplants the patient still dies due to complications after the organ were transplanted. This is where Mr. Krampitz was wrong for jumping before everyone else on the list. As many as 96,000 patients were waiting for a transplant. He thought it would be beneficial to himself to place ads and go public about “How bad he needed this transplant.” As was so many other patients that had been on the list for, some years, and was waiting patiently. Some patients died waiting for that very organ that Mr Krampitz received. They were waiting patiently as they were following the rules and were on the list. There are different ways decisions are made when there is a dilemma about what is fair in the distribution of scarce resources. According to Armstrong and Whitlock (1998), the standard for distribution of limited resources is as follows:
-need
-equality
-contribution
-ability to pay
-effort
-merit
They think through these it is decided whether fairness is being provided in this particular transplanting situation. Decisions connected to scarce resource allotment will be considered of the ethical values of independence, generosity, and integrity. Ethical issues that are closely linked to scarce resources have been made very complex lately. So these health care professional leaders carefully and ethically explore the issues of transplantation. I believe it was truly a selfish act on Mr. Krampitz’s behalf to jump in front of all those people waiting on the transplant list. He went public and placed ads in the Houston newspaper and planted his picture and story on billboards all over. A family did decide to give him the organ from their loved one but only because he went about the system all the wrong way. He skip everyone else that abided by the law and went about getting on the list the proper way.
This is an ethical dilemma because when all those other patients are still waiting he stepped in and got the next liver that was available. Some may say it was the choice of the family that could have made the final decision. Where the family might have thought within their ethical beliefs that this is where they wanted their loved ones liver to go to. Then who is to decide whether or not they were wrong to choose Mr Krampitz? Is it wrong to choose which person you want the organ to go too? This is something I may want to look further into. If my daughter was in an accident and my boyfriend was in the car with her and he needed a kidney or liver replaced and she had one to give him to live I would want it to be given to him, or her if it was vise versa. Now who is to tell me that his liver would have to go to one on the National Waiting list? This is where you must make an ethical decision. Is it ok for an organ to go where you choose or should it go to the next in line?

References:

http://www.nursingworld.org/ojin/topic8/topic8_5.htm

http://www.transplantliving.org/beforethetransplant/list/waitList.aspx

http://www.unos.org/

TOURO UNIVERSITY INTERNATIONAL
MICHELLE LABRIE
BHS 365
MODULE 4
DR AFSHIN AFROOKTEH

Ethical Dilemmas The United Network for Organ sharing is also known as UNOS. This organization everyday helps persons who are terminally ill with transplants that range from kidneys to livers and many more. UNOS was discovered by the Coalition on Donation in 1992 to educate the population about organ and tissue donations. There are currently as of 4 June 2007 there were 96,589 candidates on the waiting list. The number of transplants that were successful between January and February were 4,425 as of May 25th 2007. The total number of donors during January and February were 2, 274 as of May 25th 2007. So as you can see many persons are waiting and many persons are donating to save the lives of others. The steps needed to follow be placed on the National Waiting List are as follows:
1. You have to receive a referral from your doctor.
2. You have to contact a transplant hospital.
3. You have to schedule an appointment for evaluation to see if you are an acceptable candidate for a transplant.
4. If your evaluation deems you are good candidates you will be added to the list.
Then you wait. It could be as long as years to receive the transplant. Many die each year waiting for a transplant. Some organs do not even make it to the patient in time. Sometimes with transplants the patient still dies due to complications after the organ were transplanted. This is where Mr. Krampitz was wrong for jumping before everyone else on the list. As many as 96,000 patients were waiting for a transplant. He thought it would be beneficial to himself to place ads and go public about “How bad he needed this transplant.” As was so many other patients that had been on the list for, some years, and was waiting patiently. Some patients died waiting for that very organ that Mr Krampitz received. They were waiting patiently as they were following the rules and were on the list. There are different ways decisions are made when there is a dilemma about what is fair in the distribution of scarce resources. According to Armstrong and Whitlock (1998), the standard for distribution of limited resources is as follows:
-need
-equality
-contribution
-ability to pay
-effort
-merit
They think through these it is decided whether fairness is being provided in this particular transplanting situation. Decisions connected to scarce resource allotment will be considered of the ethical values of independence, generosity, and integrity. Ethical issues that are closely linked to scarce resources have been made very complex lately. So these health care professional leaders carefully and ethically explore the issues of transplantation. I believe it was truly a selfish act on Mr. Krampitz’s behalf to jump in front of all those people waiting on the transplant list. He went public and placed ads in the Houston newspaper and planted his picture and story on billboards all over. A family did decide to give him the organ from their loved one but only because he went about the system all the wrong way. He skip everyone else that abided by the law and went about getting on the list the proper way.
This is an ethical dilemma because when all those other patients are still waiting he stepped in and got the next liver that was available. Some may say it was the choice of the family that could have made the final decision. Where the family might have thought within their ethical beliefs that this is where they wanted their loved ones liver to go to. Then who is to decide whether or not they were wrong to choose Mr Krampitz? Is it wrong to choose which person you want the organ to go too? This is something I may want to look further into. If my daughter was in an accident and my boyfriend was in the car with her and he needed a kidney or liver replaced and she had one to give him to live I would want it to be given to him, or her if it was vise versa. Now who is to tell me that his liver would have to go to one on the National Waiting list? This is where you must make an ethical decision. Is it ok for an organ to go where you choose or should it go to the next in line?

References:

http://www.nursingworld.org/ojin/topic8/topic8_5.htm

http://www.transplantliving.org/beforethetransplant/list/waitList.aspx

http://www.unos.org/