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Public Moralities Concerning Donation and Disposition of Organs: Results from a Cross-European Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 May 2008

MARK SCHWEDA  and
SILKE SCHICKTANZ
MARK SCHWEDA
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine at the University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
SILKE SCHICKTANZ
Affiliation:
Department of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine at the University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
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Extract

There are not many international consensuses in the governance of biomedicine. One that exists concerns a general reluctance toward a commercialization of organ procurement. However, with reference to the problem of “organ scarcity,” there is an increasingly louder call in ethical and legal discourse to “give urgent consideration to any option that may make up the shortfall,” and to establish a debate on financial incentives “without any taboos.” Other ethicists and jurists criticize this development, and warn of injustice, exploitation of the poor, and a commodification of the human body.

Type
Special Section: International Voices 2008
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 17 , Issue 3 , July 2008 , pp. 308 - 317
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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References

Notes

1 Erin, C, Harris, J. An ethical market in human organs. Journal of Medical Ethics 2003;29:137–9CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

2 Breyer, F, van den Daele, W, Engelhard, M, Gubernatis, G, Kliemt, H, Kopetzki, CH, et al. Organmangel. Ist der Tod auf der Warteliste unvermeidbar? Berlin: Springer; 2006Google Scholar.

3 For an overview, see Simmerling, M, Angelos, P, Franklin, J, Abecassis, M. The commercialisation of human organs for transplantation: The current status of the debate. Current Opinion in Organ Transplantation 2006;11:130–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 See Gold, S, Schulz, KH, Koch, U. Der Organspendeprozess: Ursachen des Organmangels und mögliche Lösungsansätze. Inhaltliche und methodenkritische Analyse vorliegender Studien. Eine Expertise im Auftrag der Bundeszentrale für gesundheitliche Aufklärung (BZgA). Forschung und Praxis der Gesundheitsförderung. Band 13. Köln: BZgA; 2001Google Scholar.

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6 See Morgan, DL. Focus Groups as Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; 1997CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 See Bohnsack, R. Rekonstruktive Sozialforschung—Einführung in Methodologie und Praxis qualitativer Forschung. Opladen: Leske und Budrich; 2000Google Scholar.

8 The two German focus groups were recruited, organized, and conducted by the Research Group Bioethics and Science Communication at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine Berlin-Buch. The two Cypriot focus groups were recruited, organized, and conducted by the Department of Clinical Genetics at the Archbishop Makarios III Medical Centre. The two Dutch focus groups were recruited, organized, and conducted by the Department of Philosophy at the University of Utrecht. The two Swedish focus groups were recruited, organized, and conducted by the Department of European Ethnology at the University of Lund. All groups were recruited, organized, and conducted in early 2005, following the guidelines for setting and content of the EU Project “Challenges of Biomedicine,” Contract No. SAS6-CT-2003-510238.

9 See State of the Art-Report Cyprus, produced by V. Anastasiadou and C. Constantinou within the framework of the EU-Project “Challenges of Biomedicine,” Contract No. SAS6-CT-2003-510238.

10 For more details on the procedures of data collection, see the Local Focus Group Reports available from Challenges of Medicine (homepage on the Internet). Department of Social Studies of Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Vienna; available at http://www.univie.ac.at/virusss/cob/work.html (accessed 30 July 2007)Google Scholar.

11 Strauss, A, Corbin, J. Basics of Qualitative Research. Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques. Newbury Park, CA: Sage; 1990Google Scholar.

12 See note 2, Breyer et al. 2006.

13 See note 4, Gold et al. 2001.

14 Focus Group Sweden (lay people), female speaker A.

15 Focus Group Germany (affected people), male speaker B.

16 For an overview, see Gutmann, T. Reimbursement, rewarded gifting, financial incentives and commercialism in living organ donation. In: Collins, GM, Dubernard, JM, Persijn, GG, Land, W, eds. Procurement and Preservation of Vascularized Organs. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers; 1997:301–16Google Scholar.

17 Focus Group Germany (lay people), female speaker C.

18 Focus Group Cyprus (lay people), female speaker D.

19 Focus Group the Netherlands (lay people), male speaker E.

20 Focus Group Sweden (lay people), female speaker F.

21 See Joralemon, D, Cox, P. Body values: The case against compensating for transplant organs. Hastings Center Report 2003;33(1):27–33CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

22 Focus Group Germany (lay people), male speaker G.

23 Focus Group the Netherlands (lay people), male speaker E.

24 Focus Group the Netherlands (lay people), male speaker H.

25 See Daar, AS. Rewarded gifting. Transplantation Proceedings 1992;24:2207–11Google ScholarPubMed.

26 See Schicktanz, S, Schweda, M, Franzen, M. “In a completely different light”? The role of being affected for epistemic perspectives and moral attitudes of patients, relatives and lay people. Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 2008;11(1):57–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

27 See Wilkinson, S. Commodification arguments for the legal prohibition of organ sale. Health Care Analysis 2000;8:189–201CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

28 Campbell, CS. Body, self, and the property paradigm. Hastings Center Report 1992;22(5):34–42CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed. Williams-Jones, B. Concepts of personhood and the commodification of the body. Health Law Review 1999;7(3):11–3Google Scholar.