Ethical Solutions to the Problem of Organ Shortage

Journal article

Altruism and solidarity are concepts that are closely related to organ donation for transplantation. On the one hand, they are typically used for encouraging people to donate. On the other hand, they also underpin the regulations in force in each country to different extents. They are often used indistinctly and equivocally, despite the different ethical implications of each concept. This paper aims to clarify to what extent we can speak of altruism and solidarity in the predominant models of organ donation. It also raises the ethical question of whether these categories are adequate as a basis for such models, bearing in mind that organs are a scarce resource and that a shortage of them may mean that fewer lives are saved or improved.INEDyTO [Investigation on the Ethics of Organ Donation and Transplantation]Spanish Government European Commission MINECO FFI2017-88913-P"Bioethics and end-of-life practices" (INEDyTOII) MINECO PID2020-118729RBSpanish Government FPU19/06027La Caixa Foundation LCF/BQ/DR20/1179000

Authors: Sterri, AB; Regmi, S; Harris, J

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Journal: Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics
• Volume: 31
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 297-309
• Publication date: 2022-07-28
• DOI: 10.1017/s0963180121000955
• EISSN: 1469-2147
• ISSN: 0963-1801
• Language: English
• Keywords: Social psychology; Engineering ethics; Extant taxon; Psychology; Ethical issues; Medicine; Altruism (biology); Economic shortage; Surgery; Business; Transplantation; Biology; Economics; Organ transplantation; Organ donation; Opting out