The Ethics of Asking In Organ Donation
Bioethics.net
Original Commentary by BEI Young Professionals member Olivette Burton, MBe, MSW.
Last Sunday my friend collapsed on a soccer field and was rushed to the hospital. In an instant, a lifelong athlete with a fantastic physique and a beautiful spirit was gone, betrayed by a heart that malfunctioned and abruptly failed. Cause of death…heart attack…25 years old. As is the case in situations like these, especially when the dead person is young and otherwise healthy, the possibility of obtaining organs becomes part of the clinical process. Thus, while in the hospital and at the height of grief, staff approached the family about the possibility of donating his organs. Being devout Muslims of West African descent, they declined on the basis of their faith, which requires that the body be returned whole in death. That should have been the end of the matter. However, according to the family and friends who were present, the staff aggressively altered their tone, in person and during a telephone conversation, in an attempt to secure consent for organ donation. It was only after notifying staff that an ethicist was being consulted did the pressure finally subside.
The scarcity of organs is of serious concern. According to an ad posted in a NYC subway train (HateTheWait.org) a New Yorker dies every 15 minutes while waiting for an organ. This past year while lecturing and meeting with medical personnel at a conference in Beijing China, I attended a workshop that emphasized the essential understanding of the causes of the huge gap between the number of individuals waiting for organs and the number of donors. The workshop raised a critical question: What strategies and initiatives could be done to begin to reconcile the supply and demand ratio in an ethical way? I know of a woman who has been waiting upwards of 20 years or more for a kidney due to complications associated with lupus. She carries around her portable dialysis machine, a sort of suitcase like contraption that keeps her going. The transplant team and medical staff in her state have been expertly stellar in keeping her alive with, according to her, an acceptable semblance of quality living.
As a medical social worker and bioethicist in a hospital/community health center setting working with people in diverse communities (i.e. immigrant, poor ethnic) involved with issues of loss via violence (gunshot victims, domestic, etc.), illness, and accident, I have experienced firsthand that there is no right time to approach a family, whether that be to deliver a grim outcome or to ask about the possibility of donating organs. Yet, in order to fulfill our medical responsibilities, understandably, it must be done, albeit delicately, sensitively, and with respect for the family’s lossâ€" whether the answer is yes or no. We cannot forget that there is a truth and a consequence to patients hearing and knowing real stories in treatment and research about unfair distribution or procurement of organs among vulnerable members of our population.
IContinue reading
{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}
Original Commentary by BEI Young Professionals member Olivette Burton, MBe, MSW.
Last Sunday my friend collapsed on a soccer field and was rushed to the hospital. In an instant, a lifelong athlete with a fantastic physique and a beautiful spirit was gone, betrayed by a heart that malfunctioned and abruptly failed. Cause of death…heart attack…25 years old. As is the case in situations like these, especially when the dead person is young and otherwise healthy, the possibility of obtaining organs becomes part of the clinical process. Thus, while in the hospital and at the height of grief, staff approached the family about the possibility of donating his organs. Being devout Muslims of West African descent, they declined on the basis of their faith, which requires that the body be returned whole in death. That should have been the end of the matter. However, according to the family and friends who were present, the staff aggressively altered their tone, in person and during a telephone conversation, in an attempt to secure consent for organ donation. It was only after notifying staff that an ethicist was being consulted did the pressure finally subside.
The scarcity of organs is of serious concern. According to an ad posted in a NYC subway train (HateTheWait.org) a New Yorker dies every 15 minutes while waiting for an organ. This past year while lecturing and meeting with medical personnel at a conference in Beijing China, I attended a workshop that emphasized the essential understanding of the causes of the huge gap between the number of individuals waiting for organs and the number of donors. The workshop raised a critical question: What strategies and initiatives could be done to begin to reconcile the supply and demand ratio in an ethical way? I know of a woman who has been waiting upwards of 20 years or more for a kidney due to complications associated with lupus. She carries around her portable dialysis machine, a sort of suitcase like contraption that keeps her going. The transplant team and medical staff in her state have been expertly stellar in keeping her alive with, according to her, an acceptable semblance of quality living.
As a medical social worker and bioethicist in a hospital/community health center setting working with people in diverse communities (i.e. immigrant, poor ethnic) involved with issues of loss via violence (gunshot victims, domestic, etc.), illness, and accident, I have experienced firsthand that there is no right time to approach a family, whether that be to deliver a grim outcome or to ask about the possibility of donating organs. Yet, in order to fulfill our medical responsibilities, understandably, it must be done, albeit delicately, sensitively, and with respect for the family’s lossâ€" whether the answer is yes or no. We cannot forget that there is a truth and a consequence to patients hearing and knowing real stories in treatment and research about unfair distribution or procurement of organs among vulnerable members of our population.
IContinue reading
{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}
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