Ethical Issue. Organ donation - Term Paper Example

Often, brain dead individuals who are still breathing and whose hearts have not yet stopped beating are deemed as dead and their organs are retrieved with the consent of their closest relatives. The question here is – how can a person be defined as dead? And whether relatives who are grieving the death of a loved one be allowed to go through the harassing and mentally painful proceedings of donating the organs of their loved one while he/she is still at the death bed? Even more remorseful is the situation wherein the organs of a dead individual are removed prior to sending the body to his/her home for a funeral.

Most countries around the world have laws that presume that an individual is ready to donate organs upon death, unless he/she registers against donation, beforehand. This law is in force in many European and Asian countries such as Spain and Singapore, due to which the rates of organ donation are very high in these countries (Abouna 56). In case of living individuals, there are other causes of concern. It is often seen that family members coerce a healthy individual, whose organ matches that of a needy relative, into donating an organ against his/her wish.

Although most countries have banned forced organ donation and coercion, familial pressure and emotional blackmail lead most individuals into doing so, reluctantly. In another scenario, economically backward individuals sell their organs for money. This brings forth another cause of concern as rich individuals in need of organs can easily exploit the poor. Organ donation is thus a huge problem and the issues are not just ethical but also economical, political and social. Donation by living persons falls in three categories – Directed donation to a relative, Directed donation to a stranger and Non-directed donation in which an organ is donated to a general pool and transplanted to a needy individual on top of the waiting list (Truog 444).

Each of these donations has its own