Ethical Considerations in Organ Transplants - Assignment Example

There are several criteria used to determine who will come first on the waiting list, which might help us solve the issue the doctor is faced with. The patient's ability to pay for the organ is what is considered first. A heart is treated like a scarce commodity because it is hard to find and it is also more valuable than anything else because of its ability to save someone's life (Perry, 2013). A scarce commodity, which is vital for someone to continue living, is certainly not a luxury, thus the reason why the highest bidder is considered first.

The second factor is the preference of the donor or kin. In short, this is who the heart donor decides will be the recipient of the heart (Perry, 2013). For example, a white racist might say that their heart should not be given to an African or a Muslim might say that their heart only goes to a fellow Muslim. The third factor is that the transplant favors the donor's religion or citizenship. This is done in support of someone'sssayers money channeled to the endeavor (Perry, 2013). However, in the cases provided, the second and third factors might not apply because we are not told the religion or citizenship of the donor and we are also not told whether the donor had racist views.

The fourth factor to be taken into consideration is the need of the patient (Perry, 2013). The need of the patient, and the extent to which the transplant will help the patient, are also other vital factors. However, in most cases, it is the senior doctors who decide whether the patient's need is that significant (Perry, 2013). Thus, in this case, the doctor might not be very influential in deciding which patient most needs to transplant. Apart from their needs, there are also benefits to the recipients.

They consider factors such as age, overall health, ability to obey the regimen or anti-rejection drugs, and also the patient's support system (Perry, 2013). These can apply in our case because some of the clients have a family to support. Thus, by arranging the patients according to these considerations, Dr. Doe would be considered first on the list because he paid for the transplant; Lisa would come second because of her needs and also the family needs; Jerry would come third because of the age factor; almost Ozzy would come last because of the needs factor, he is an abuser who does not seem to care about his own life, thus the heart transplant would not do much to help him.