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Organ donation ... (w/poll)

B

Black88GTA

Diamond Member
My friends and I were talking about this last night. Interesting moral dilemma.

OK, here's the scenario. You are registered as an organ donor. You are out riding a motorcycle, and hit a deer. You are critically injured in the accident. Upon arrival to the ER, you are given a 50/50 chance - statistically, half of those that come in with injuries similar to yours make a full recovery. The other half die, or become vegetables.

Down the hall from you in the hospital lays a 16 year old boy who will die without a heart transplant. The room next to him houses a mother of 3 who will die without a lung transplant. And the room next to hers holds a girl who will die without a new liver. (assume that your organs would be perfectly suited to these individuals.) Now, these people have not done anything to mistreat their bodies (hard drugs, severe alcoholism, etc) but rather just had some bad luck.

The doctor begins working on you to treat your injuries. He is fully aware of the situation of the three people down the hall. He knows that if he saves your life, those 3 will almost certainly die. However, if you die, those 3 have a very good chance of living long, productive, healthy lives with your organs.

Now here's the moral question. Given the situation, does the doctor try harder to heal those individuals who are NOT organ donors? Does he not do *everything* that can be done in order to save your life if you are listed as one? Does he "let" you die, so that those others may live?

Discuss.

EDIT: Forgot poll
 
uhh no...no doctor would let you die just to save 3 people...thats so stupid!
they'll try to save you with all their power.
 
well, i believe the hippocratic oath, which all medical professionals take VERY seriously prohibit this sort of thing.

btw, everyone should be forced into organ donation. i dont understand why people are so selfish when they are dead. not like you still need a heart/lung/kidney/pancreas/intestines/layrnyx/etc.
 
I don't think the ER docs are terribly concerned with organ donation. Only after you're dead do they bother to check, and if appropriate, call the harvest docs.
 
I find it unlikely that your organs just happen to be compatible with 3 different individuals who just happen to be patients at the same hospital. Even if you did die it's unlikely that you being a donor would help their causes.
 
Originally posted by: mwmorph
well, i believe the hippocratic oath, which all medical professionals take VERY seriously prohibit this sort of thing.

btw, everyone should be forced into organ donation. i dont understand why people are so selfish when they are dead. not like you still need a heart/lung/kidney/pancreas/intestines/layrnyx/etc.
Click to expand...

Fvck you. I'm keeping mine.
 
Originally posted by: QuitBanningMe
Originally posted by: mwmorph
well, i believe the hippocratic oath, which all medical professionals take VERY seriously prohibit this sort of thing.

btw, everyone should be forced into organ donation. i dont understand why people are so selfish when they are dead. not like you still need a heart/lung/kidney/pancreas/intestines/layrnyx/etc.
Click to expand...

Fvck you. I'm keeping mine.
Click to expand...

so you're gonna be selfish, and kill up to 15 people that couldve been saved by them?😕 your choice i guess when you go to hell for being so damn greedy with your organs, and probably whatever else you've been hoarding.
 
Originally posted by: mwmorph
Originally posted by: QuitBanningMe
Originally posted by: mwmorph
well, i believe the hippocratic oath, which all medical professionals take VERY seriously prohibit this sort of thing.

btw, everyone should be forced into organ donation. i dont understand why people are so selfish when they are dead. not like you still need a heart/lung/kidney/pancreas/intestines/layrnyx/etc.
Click to expand...

Fvck you. I'm keeping mine.
Click to expand...

so you're gonna be selfish, and kill up to 15 people that couldve been saved by them?😕 your choice i guess when you go to hell for being so damn greedy with your organs, and probably whatever else you've been hoarding.
Click to expand...

When it's your time, it's your time. I don't care if my organs would make you live another 30 years; it's your damned time. Die already.
 
Originally posted by: EyeMWing
Originally posted by: mwmorph
Originally posted by: QuitBanningMe
Originally posted by: mwmorph
well, i believe the hippocratic oath, which all medical professionals take VERY seriously prohibit this sort of thing.

btw, everyone should be forced into organ donation. i dont understand why people are so selfish when they are dead. not like you still need a heart/lung/kidney/pancreas/intestines/layrnyx/etc.
Click to expand...

Fvck you. I'm keeping mine.
Click to expand...

so you're gonna be selfish, and kill up to 15 people that couldve been saved by them?😕 your choice i guess when you go to hell for being so damn greedy with your organs, and probably whatever else you've been hoarding.
Click to expand...

When it's your time, it's your time. I don't care if my organs would make you live another 30 years; it's your damned time. Die already.
Click to expand...
Exactly


If you want a system similar in place make it where you have to be a donor to get organs.
 
Originally posted by: intogamer
it is like saying would you kill 1 innocent person to cure all the diseases in the world
Click to expand...

Nope; but I'd kill everyone with a disease to save 1 innocent person from contracting it. Problem being that there aren't any innocent people left.
 
Originally posted by: Nohr
I find it unlikely that your organs just happen to be compatible with 3 different individuals who just happen to be patients at the same hospital. Even if you did die it's unlikely that you being a donor would help their causes.
Click to expand...
Just to clarify this post:
- There are long waiting lists for virtually every organ that is possible to transplant.
- Donated organs can be sent across the country and transplantation completed in less than 24 hours.
So it's very likely that organ donation could occur (in real life, if not in the OP's example).

I think that doctors try to save everyone but, there have been some documented issues of wrongdoing, and organ harvesting is BIG business. If you live, there is only 1 patient. If you die, there could be 3 patients. So, I have no opinion. I'll admit that the incentive for wrongdoing is there, but I don't believe (or don't want to believe) that such wrongdoing actually occurs.

Personally, I decided years ago that I would never choose to live at the expense of any other innocent person's life.
 
Originally posted by: mwmorph
Originally posted by: QuitBanningMe
Originally posted by: mwmorph
well, i believe the hippocratic oath, which all medical professionals take VERY seriously prohibit this sort of thing.

btw, everyone should be forced into organ donation. i dont understand why people are so selfish when they are dead. not like you still need a heart/lung/kidney/pancreas/intestines/layrnyx/etc.
Click to expand...

Fvck you. I'm keeping mine.
Click to expand...

so you're gonna be selfish, and kill up to 15 people that couldve been saved by them?😕 your choice i guess when you go to hell for being so damn greedy with your organs, and probably whatever else you've been hoarding.
Click to expand...


How is he being selfish? He isn't killing anyone. Why should he donate his organs so hospitals and doctors can make TONS of money on the operation? Who's being greedy now?
 
1) It is the doctor's oath and ethically the doctor's responsibility to help the patient in front of him/her live. No doctor should purposely kill a patient in hopes that another patient may possibly have a slightly higher chance of living.

2) Your example is a pretty bad example. The doctor doesn't know that your organs are compatable (they probably aren't). Plus, another donor will likely come in where the organs can be removed without purposely killing someone. There is a chance that everyone can be saved - you and those who need organs. And even if you do donate, it doesn't guarantee a life is saved. The organs are usually rejected and survival rates are not very good. Thus it isn't a "very good chance of living long, productive, healthy lives".

3) Hospitals would rather let someone die in need of a transplant than to transplant an organ which might have a non-fatal disease. Thus the hospitals are rejecting organs and they are going to waste. I'd rather see these rejected organs be used than to kill someone for organs.
 
The moral dilemma is not the doctor's. It is not his/her right, professionally, morally or legally, to sacrifice patients.
 
Originally posted by: mwmorph
Originally posted by: QuitBanningMe
Originally posted by: mwmorph
well, i believe the hippocratic oath, which all medical professionals take VERY seriously prohibit this sort of thing.

btw, everyone should be forced into organ donation. i dont understand why people are so selfish when they are dead. not like you still need a heart/lung/kidney/pancreas/intestines/layrnyx/etc.
Click to expand...

Fvck you. I'm keeping mine.
Click to expand...

so you're gonna be selfish, and kill up to 15 people that couldve been saved by them?😕 your choice i guess when you go to hell for being so damn greedy with your organs, and probably whatever else you've been hoarding.
Click to expand...


I don't like this logic. You do not kill a person by refusing to donate your organs. That is like saying you have killed a person who was shot, but you refused to help. Quite the contrary - what has killed the person is something you didn't put into motion.

Choosing to intervene in order to save a life is your free will. Refusing that does not make you a killer. It might make you a jackass, or in some cases criminally negligent, but not a murderer.

 
Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
This is why we need to start harvesting the organs from criminals -- three strikes, you're my kidney!
Click to expand...

And then we can just make stupidity a capital crime...
 
The doctor is not allowed to kill someone to save someone else.

Eg. A father brings his kid to the hospital and the kid needs a heart transplant. The father says he'll let his kid take his heart, sacrificing his own life for his kids.

The doctor is not allowed to let this happen.
 
Originally posted by: jagec
Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
This is why we need to start harvesting the organs from criminals -- three strikes, you're my kidney!
Click to expand...

And then we can just make stupidity a capital crime...
Click to expand...
Problem is, the jury would have to be more intelligent than the defendant, or else all sorts of wacky stuff could happen.
 
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