The Ethics in Organ Donation - Essay Example

In 2006, there were nearly 100,000 people waiting for organs but only 15,000 of the U.S. population were organ donors at that time (Perrin & McGhee, 2008, 142). The reality of transplantable organ shortage is frustrating and policymakers, together with health care practitioners, are trying to resolve the scarcity of donated organs through encouraging people to donate to increase the supply of available of organs. The opting-in policy and the opting-out policy are the donation systems adopted by several countries worldwide to address the scarcity of transplantable organs.

The United States requires the volunteering/opting-in system of organ donation. In opting-in system, deceased organ donation occurs only after an expressed consent and absence of it subjects individual to default option of non-donation (Childress & Liverman, 2006, 205). The consent may be given while the donor is still alive through signing an organ donor card or making of advance directives or by the next of kin after the death of the individual. Sad to say, only 20% of Americans seek organ donor card and 30%-50% of families decide not to donate (Perrin & McGhee, 2008, 142-143) which indicate that opting-in method has not increased the supply of scarce resources and that other approaches need to be adopted such as the opting-out system of organ donation.

In opting-out system or presumed consent, it is assumed that each individual would wish to donate organs after death but has the option to opt out or remove from the default option of organ donation by notifying the national registry (Perrin & McGhee, 2008, 144). Despite ethical and legal implications, European countries are practicing the opting-out system to increase the number of organs available for transplantation and alleviate the suffering of people waiting for organ donation. Legal justifications for opting-out approach include precedence of individual wishes whether or not to opt out of organ donation which showed that the constitutional right of the patients to decide is still upheld (Buggins, 2008, 12).

Whether or not there is a default policy for organ donation, opting-out policy still values individual preferences and exercise of authority – the same legal accountability an opting-in system has which has made the opting-out system equally legal with the opting-in system. In addition, the opting-out system is also as ethical as the opting-in system if one would base it in the theoretical premises of consequentialism/utilitarianism which states that “the end should justify the mean” (Hartogh, 2011, 265).

Under this theory, the opting-out approach of default organ donation is ethical and moral as long as the outcome/benefits of action outweigh the harm done by the process. In this case, if opting-out would increase the supply of donated organs and alleviates suffering of waiting organ recipients, it outweighed the harm done by default organ donation as saving more lives justify the method used. Likewise, the opting-out approach is based on the following provisions: human organs are scarce commodities and organs loses value when people are dead; each person would want to receive an organ when they need it and desire an adequate supply of organs and donors; and people would not want to be considered as free