Ethical Issues With Organ Donation

As aforementioned, there are unceasing debates on ethical issues and dilemma from organ procurement to organ allocation. Robson et al. (2010) defined organ transplant as "transfer of a living tissue or organ to an injured or ill person to restore health or reduce disability". The organ procurement can be obtained from living donor or deceased donor. According to Robson et al. (2010), donors who adopted living donation are more willing to donor their organs to their families, relatives or friends. They may even opt to donate their organs to strangers in turn of rewards. Is this ethical to trade organ? Will this imply that rich person has better advantage to get new organ over the poor? Is this fair to poor person? The public attitude toward
organ donation also contribute to the shortage of organ supply. What are the cause of donor shortage? What is the ethical roles that nurses take in donation? How do an individual’s social and religion factors affect the attitude toward donation? In the case of donor shortage, deceased donor is an alternative option. It raise questions on the criteria of death determination and organ allocation. What are the definition of death? How can we determine one is dead? How to balance the donor’s and receivers best interests? Hence, the issues related to organ donation and transplantation are highly connected with ethical issues and implications.