An Ethical Review Of Living Organ Transplantation

Living organ transplantation is a kind of organ transplant technology. It enables the desperate patients to improve health, prolong life and improve quality of life. At the same time it bring the donor inevitable injuries, so the technology encountered ethical and moral embarrassment in practice. Many experts and scholars at home and abroad even proposed stop living organ transplantation as there has ethical confusion. If the ethical values of this technology can not be clarified as soon as possible, and find solutions to these ethical problems, it will bring many problems to society, and defeat to use this technology to serve for mankind! How to review this technology ethically?After about one year's surveyed on sufferers and their families, doctors, social groups; consulted the recent relevant documents; combine the transplant-related laws and domestic meetings; use the scientific method of Marxist dialectical materialism and historical materialism; the author investigated the ethics of Organ Transplantation of the following issues: On one hand, the author believes that the ethics of this technology is valuable. First, the invention of this technology is designed to save the lives of patients, and life to people is the most valuable, this technology can meet humanity's greatest desires - to survive, and thus meet the objective of "good"; living donor organ transplantation has many technical advantages: transplant rejection is smaller, lower failure rate, higher survival rate, longer survival time, so that the means are relatively "good". Second, love is the emotional foundation of a living organ transplant. The family love is the driving force of organ transplantation, without family love life-saving transplant can only be empty talk. The love to those non-relatives is the driving force for Organ Transplantation. if there is no that kind of selfless altruistic love, that non-relatives living organ transplantation can only exist on paper. Third, "happiness" is the ethical demands of organ transplantation. The donor involve in the organ donation process to achieve their spiritual pursuit of the perfect personality. The receptor receive the help of others will feel very pleased and happy. The doctor is happy as both completed rescue patients which is his or her responsibility and let the hope of his or her patient to achieve health come true. On the other hand, the author also thinks there are many living organ transplant ethical challenges. Follows the"good", it might be "evil". So the author discussed it from four aspects: (1) Is it violate the medical humanitarian since organ transplant damages the donor's health? Is this valuable? (2) Whether under the interests the hospital can be truly informed consent? Will the living-donor face moral pressure, so that "charity" becomes "obligations"? (3) Can human organs be commercialized? Will living donor organ transplantation lead to a more popular style of trading?How to solve these problems? The author finally find some ways: First, construct some reasonable rules of ethics: the principle of respect for life, the principle of precautionary, the principle of informed consent, the principle of free donations, and the principle of protection of vulnerable groups. If everyone internalizes these rules into their own behavior, no doubt that the best interests of the community would be realized. Second, establish new concepts: righteousness, profit, death. If the utilitarianism becomes a dominant ideology, then "the righteous spirit" will be overshadowed. If the traditional concept of death is still use to determine the person's death, then organ resources will always be scarce, living organ transplants will be carry on, and its ethical is still embarrassed. Third, strengthen the correct guidance of public opinion; let the public get a comprehensive understanding of the Transplants, then judge the value and decide their behavior themselves. Fourth, perfect laws and regulations, strengthen the ethical review. People usually have bad habits, which needs to regulate by law. if there have perfect relevant laws and regulations, the organ trading will be stopped. Fifth, improve the technical of health care and reduce medical risk, thus receptors can live longer and minimize the risk.All in all, The author believe that living organ transplantation has both ethical values and ethical problems. A dialectical view of this technology should not be either blindly absolute prohibition or abusing this technology. People should obey the following principles:the first one are strictly respecting for life, informed consent, free donations; the second one are to establish a new righteousness and view of death concepts ;the third one is to strengthen the right public opinions; and the fourth one is to set sound laws and regulations ; the fifth one is to improve medical technology and means of making living organ transplantation achieve its value.