PHIL 148A 1st Edition Exam 3 Study Guide Lectures 1 12 Lecture 1 3 12 ORGAN DONATION Titmuss Why Give to Strangers Blood links everyone despite individual differences Problems with blood donations o Only half of the population can donate o Waste of donation short shelf life o Bad blood can instantly kill someone People donate for different reasons 2 extremes o Paid Market transactions Buy sell blood donor cards illegally Mislabeled blood with diseases o Unpaid Act of freewill No expected return gift Most common method people choose More than half of donors are voluntary but 10 of supplies come from Leads to a rise in unemployed unskilled poor How commercial blood banks fail o Economic efficiency o Administrative efficiency o Price o Quality Thinks that people should volunteer donations instead of commercializing it What are the pros cons of paid and unpaid donation What would you choose and why Kluge Organ Donation Retrieval Whose Body Is It Anyway People reject the economic organ donation aspect o People have close association with their organs bodies o Rich would take advantage of the poor People are reluctant to donate voluntarily o Religious reasons o Psychologically find it offensive o Misunderstanding of organ donation o We can t do anything about religious reasons but we can educate the misinformed Some people sign off on organ donation when conscious but when they become unconscious kin are able to decline donation o Problem This can overlook the patient s original wishes can make informed consent become useless Ignoring people s wishes violates autonomy causes deaths Supports donation and feels that more should be done to support it How much say should a family member have on someone s right to donate organs Think more about reasons people would be against donation Radcliffe Richards et al The Case For Allowing Kidney Sales Prohibition of selling kidneys causes death suffering we need more than just personal disgust to outlaw it Can take advantage of the poor o But they are the willing population o If you lessen the volume of the poor there will not even be the need for prohibition Sellers can be misinformed o Easy fix duh Money does not have power to make an acceptable risk and unacceptable one o Kidney donation has little risk Rich people do dangerous sports jobs why can t poor partake in kidney donation when there is less risk Always a risk of exploitation poor treatment when you prohibit a vastly demanded good o Anyways if vendor chooses this that means that all other alternatives are worse You can only protect the vulnerable by removing what makes them vulnerable poverty Can t have privileges just for the rich o It s irrelevant because of private medicine etc You can still be altruistic while getting paid Harris The Survival Lottery Scenario X Y need transplants propose killing one person to save the 2 of them Doctors cannot prey on healthy to help the sick o Cannot be considered a murderer if they don t do what a man ought not do Proposes plan like a lottery where a random person would be selected to become an organ donor and save the lives of many Arguments against o Society dominated by old o If someone did not want to participate they would be considered a murderer o Lack of security o People would be seen as interchangeable parts o There would be actual murder Arguments for o People who brought their organ failure upon themselves drinking drugs etc would not be considered o Technically would be self defense for those who needed the people to die to save their own lives o Could use the already dying for the program o The chances of someone being picked are slimmer than the odds of being killed whilst driving people don t worry so much about that o Kill one to save multiple Believes the lottery is the most optimal way to minimize deaths What would you choose For what reasons Is killing one to save many a valid argument Lecture 2 3 19 RESOURCE ALLOCATION MICRO LEVEL Menzel Rescuing Lives Can t We Count People jump transplant lists for a variety of reasons leaving others to die o Ex Politician who just so happened to get to top of list Multiple organ transplants for one person only save one life when you can use those organs to save a few o It is extremely unethical because you are sacrificing innocent lives o It can lead to similar problems in different realms Medical experimentation using scarce organs isn t right because we will never have the ample resources available because there s higher risk those experiments will fail What s the difference in urgency need in people who need one organ vs people who need multiple How do you define the difference in need in two organ recipients Do you support or reject the author s position Rescher The Allocation of Exotic Medical Lifesaving Therapy Selection for technology is not just a medical issue o Need to make a list of rational guidelines Criteria of Inclusion o Narrows potential candidates o Constituency Factor Normal clientele boundaries o Progress of Science Can this help research o Prospect of Success Will they survive Criteria of Selection o Case by case comparison o Relative likelihood of success o Life Expectancy o Family Role o Prospective Service o Retrospective service Selection transcends medical sphere because what will happen after all medical questions are answered Chance should be added to procedure as well Is this the optimal solution for our problems Are any of these criterion or factors unfair Veach How Age Should Matter Irrational to fund all slightly beneficial expensive care in the elderly People are always going to want more of what isn t readily available o Why resources should be allocated Consequentialist arguments o For using age Using scarce resources on someone with shorter lifespan will not create most benefit o Against using age Elderly people can still be productive members of society Veach shuts this argument down Deontologist Justice Arguments o For using age Respect natural life span help people until they re old with an acute illness Create an age specific normal opportunity range so people do not get more than they re capable of using o Against using age Elderly are most needy their needs should be met You can look at time in 2 ways o Over a lifetime Look at people at a cumulative level Who s had more life to live Gives advantage to young o Slice of time Who s worse at a given time Levels playing field for young and old Which arguments are more relevant Consequentialist