“Brain death”, autonomy, and the future of organ transplantation

Abstract: Autonomy and its companion, informed consent is regarded as fundamental in contemporary medical ethics. Still, the individuals are deprived of the possibility to make a genuinely informed choice with respect to organ donation in the event of “brain death”. It can be eas...

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Autor principal: Iftime,Oana
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Centro Interdisciplinario de Estudios en Bioética, Universidad de Chile 2019
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Acceso en línea:http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1726-569X2019000100063
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spelling oai:scielo:S1726-569X20190001000632019-07-17“Brain death”, autonomy, and the future of organ transplantationIftime,Oana autonomy brain death organ transplantation public trust in health care Abstract: Autonomy and its companion, informed consent is regarded as fundamental in contemporary medical ethics. Still, the individuals are deprived of the possibility to make a genuinely informed choice with respect to organ donation in the event of “brain death”. It can be easily argued, scientifically speaking, that the status of the “brain dead” patients is that of living beings, able to process nutrients and drugs and even to harbour and nourish their progeny into the womb. A philosophical, not scientific distinction between the “un-meaningful” lives of the “brain dead” and “meaningful” human life underlines the “brain death” concept. Yet, the public is told that the “brain dead” are dead, i. e. lacking life. Not only that this situation collides with the principle of autonomy, but it also poses a risk for public trust in organ transplantation. It is obvious that people have certain expectancies from health care professionals and the decision makers, and finding out about such inconsistences might drive the public reject organ transplantation, with the recourse to the “brain death” concept ultimately leading to the aggravation of the organ shortage, instead of the alleviation that it was expected to bring.info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessCentro Interdisciplinario de Estudios en Bioética, Universidad de ChileActa bioethica v.25 n.1 20192019-06-01text/htmlhttp://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1726-569X2019000100063en10.4067/S1726-569X2019000100063
institution Scielo Chile
collection Scielo Chile
language English
topic autonomy
brain death
organ transplantation
public trust in health care
spellingShingle autonomy
brain death
organ transplantation
public trust in health care
Iftime,Oana
“Brain death”, autonomy, and the future of organ transplantation
description Abstract: Autonomy and its companion, informed consent is regarded as fundamental in contemporary medical ethics. Still, the individuals are deprived of the possibility to make a genuinely informed choice with respect to organ donation in the event of “brain death”. It can be easily argued, scientifically speaking, that the status of the “brain dead” patients is that of living beings, able to process nutrients and drugs and even to harbour and nourish their progeny into the womb. A philosophical, not scientific distinction between the “un-meaningful” lives of the “brain dead” and “meaningful” human life underlines the “brain death” concept. Yet, the public is told that the “brain dead” are dead, i. e. lacking life. Not only that this situation collides with the principle of autonomy, but it also poses a risk for public trust in organ transplantation. It is obvious that people have certain expectancies from health care professionals and the decision makers, and finding out about such inconsistences might drive the public reject organ transplantation, with the recourse to the “brain death” concept ultimately leading to the aggravation of the organ shortage, instead of the alleviation that it was expected to bring.
author Iftime,Oana
author_facet Iftime,Oana
author_sort Iftime,Oana
title “Brain death”, autonomy, and the future of organ transplantation
title_short “Brain death”, autonomy, and the future of organ transplantation
title_full “Brain death”, autonomy, and the future of organ transplantation
title_fullStr “Brain death”, autonomy, and the future of organ transplantation
title_full_unstemmed “Brain death”, autonomy, and the future of organ transplantation
title_sort “brain death”, autonomy, and the future of organ transplantation
publisher Centro Interdisciplinario de Estudios en Bioética, Universidad de Chile
publishDate 2019
url http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1726-569X2019000100063
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