Author Topic: A Doctor's Moral Dilemma (Read 980 times)

hubag bohol · « **on:** April 18, 2011, 10:33:28 PM »

You are a very skilled doctor with five dying patients, each of whom needs a different organ in order to live. Unfortunately, there are no organs available to perform any of the transplants. It just so happens that you have a sixth dying patient, suffering from a fatal illness, who will die sooner than the other five if not treated. If this sixth patient dies, you will be able to use his organs to save the five other patients. However, you have a medicine you can give to this sixth patient that will cure his illness and he wonâ€™t die. Would you:

a: Wait for the patient to die and then harvest his organs or
b: Save the patient even though the other patients wonâ€™t get organs.

If you chose to administer the medicine, would you still do so even if the medicine will not cure the patient, but, instead, delay his death to some short term future date or time after the five patients will have died? Why?

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cujo · « **Reply #1 on:** April 19, 2011, 12:12:29 AM »

You are a very skilled doctor with five dying patients, each of whom needs a different organ in order to live. Unfortunately, there are no organs available to perform any of the transplants. It just so happens that you have a sixth dying patient, suffering from a fatal illness, who will die sooner than the other five if not treated. If this sixth patient dies, you will be able to use his organs to save the five other patients. However, you have a medicine you can give to this sixth patient that will cure his illness and he wonâ€™t die. Would you:

a: Wait for the patient to die and then harvest his organs or
b: Save the patient even though the other patients wonâ€™t get organs.

If you chose to administer the medicine, would you still do so even if the medicine will not cure the patient, but, instead, delay his death to some short term future date or time after the five patients will have died? Why?

www.listverse.com

First of all you don't just harvest someone's organ without considering if that person has it in writing that he or she is willing to donate their organs if something happen to them or from family members permission...Right?

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islander · « **Reply #2 on:** April 19, 2011, 08:09:45 AM »

First of all you don't just harvest someone's organ without considering if that person has it in writing that he or she is willing to donate their organs if something happen to them or from family members permission...Right?

this brings the question to a procedural one instead of a moral one. (something like 'which is better, an apple or an orange?' 'i'll choose guava because it has more vitamin c.')

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hubag bohol · « **Reply #3 on:** April 28, 2011, 07:07:46 PM »

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Lorenzo · « **Reply #4 on:** April 28, 2011, 08:40:37 PM »

If patient 6 is dying, then it would suffice to say that this patient is going through organ failure and thus it would be pertinent to ask what kind of condition this patient has.

If this patient has AIDS, no doctor in his or her right mind would be wanting to use any organs for transplant. If this patient is a CHF/CRF patient, then it would be suffice to say that most of the other organs are already damaged for transplant. One would have to research more on condition patient 6 has.

In a medical ethics point of view, it would be unethical for a doctor to kill a patient to save other patients. It breaches our professional code. In the end, medicine is about prolonging life to the best possible way.

In assessing and managing a patient, the Golden Rule of Medicine outranks the rest, "First, DO NO harm."

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Lorenzo · « **Reply #5 on:** April 28, 2011, 08:45:49 PM »

First of all you don't just harvest someone's organ without considering if that person has it in writing that he or she is willing to donate their organs if something happen to them or from family members permission...Right?

That is correct, Cujo. It must be clear via a written consent or made known by a power of attorney.

If a person makes it known that he/she is an organ donor, and he/ she happens to get into a car accident and is declared brain dead then we would maintain her / him on life support until the organs are readied and sent. When the organs are removed, then the patient will be removed from life support.

Usually, we acquire most of the organs of the donor patients. And if the patients made it known in their written consent, their bodies are even used for medical science.

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Author Topic: A Doctor's Moral Dilemma (Read 980 times)

hubag bohol

A Doctor's Moral Dilemma

cujo

Re: A Doctor's Moral Dilemma

islander

Re: A Doctor's Moral Dilemma

hubag bohol

Re: A Doctor's Moral Dilemma

Lorenzo

Re: A Doctor's Moral Dilemma

Lorenzo

Re: A Doctor's Moral Dilemma