What Is and Is Not Ethical in Trying to Increase the Supply of Organs for Transplant

Arthur L. Caplan, Ph.D., Emmanuel and Robert Hart Professor of Bioethics; Chair, Department of Medical Ethics; Director, Center for Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania

Professor Caplan reviews proposals to increase the supply of organs available for transplant in the U.S. He also discusses shifts in policy that would permit markets or "default to donation."

Other proposals he examines include: donor ambulances, using more marginal donors and organs, relying more on living donors, increasing the use of donation after cardiac death, and other ideas. According to Professor Caplan, all of these ideas raise legal and regulatory concerns, some of which may prove to be serious impediments to their implementation.

The lecture clarifies the definition of death and brain death; policies at the Federal level governing organ procurement; how people might be encouraged to be organ and tissue donors; and what sorts of liability exist when a transplant is the source of a communicable disease.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• uchannel
• casewestern
• ethics
• law

[albertphillipstanley]

how many times does he have to say "uh" or "um"