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Ethics of organ donation and transplantation involving prisoners: the debate extends beyond our borders
Author(s) -
Westall G. P.,
Komesaroff P.,
Gorton M. W.,
Snell G. I.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
internal medicine journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.596
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1445-5994
pISSN - 1444-0903
DOI - 10.1111/j.1445-5994.2007.01563.x
Subject(s) - organ donation , medicine , transplantation , limiting , ethical issues , position (finance) , donation , solid organ , organ transplantation , affect (linguistics) , intensive care medicine , law , engineering ethics , surgery , political science , psychology , mechanical engineering , finance , engineering , economics , communication
The transplantation of solid organs raises many ethical considerations, many of which focus on the need to expand the donor pool, the limiting step in achieving ongoing growth in solid organ transplantation. A contentious source of organs, albeit not one practised in Australia or New Zealand, is the retrieval of donor organs from executed prisoners on death row. Although potentially increasing the organ donor pool, the acceptance of such organ donors raises significant ethical and legal concerns. These issues, although not appearing to affect directly and influence Australians, cannot be ignored given our position, both geographical and medical, in the wider Asia–Pacific region.