Leap to Faith

The consistent reoccurrence of Kantian ethics throughout the textbook is a good confirmation to me of my theme choice for this blog. The Good Place includes many references to Immanuel Kant, and due to my never having taken an ethics or philosophy course before this one, was my first real exposure to his philosophies. So the correlation is apparent to me. The title of Chapter 11 is "The God Committee", so naturally my first thought was in reference to the scene referenced below, even though it has nothing to do with the God Committee discussed in the textbook.

The opening sentence of this chapter states that the focus is on just allocation and personal responsibility for health (Pence 266). The discussion throughout the chapter focused on the major ethical question of "who deserves to live?" when making decisions about organ donations and transplants. Several cases were examined and the history of organ donation was explained in the context of bioethics. This chapter (along with the previous chapter) discuss ethics using a different approach than the book has previously, focusing on telling stories instead of a proposition/opposition comparison of potential ethical questions and issues. 

The main questions that exist now in organ donation/transplantation are more focused on who the recipients of the organs should be and the qualifications of a cadaver donor. These aren't questions I'm fully qualified to assess or answer, but there are multiple aspects to consider. When it comes to the recipients of the organs, should money and privilege be allowed to affect the patient's presence/position on a transplant list? Should the organs go to the sickest patients first, or the patients who would receive the most years of life from them? And brain-dead qualifications have been debated for decades by physicians and bioethicists alike. Do we move forward with finding additional criteria for brain death and accept/endorse the non-heart-beating cadaver donor protocol, or do we stick to the original Harvard brain-death protocol? At what point can we ask questions about the potential for assisted, facilitated, or even enhanced timing in a patient's death? 

This chapter also addressed the "rule of rescue" and the media's involvement in transplants and other medical procedures. Should people be allowed to self-promote in this way and get funding and/or medical attention due to their ability to be on television? This is another question that involves privilege and appearances, and will benefit attractive, articulate, white patients before people of color, and/or those who do not have these qualities. Disparities exist everywhere in healthcare, and this is another example of that.

Reading about the history of what may be considered common procedures is fascinating, especially considering that the medical and bioethics will continue to morph and develop as medical advancements are occurring constantly. 

Textbook reference:

Pence, Gregory. Medical Ethics: Accounts of Ground-Breaking Cases. 9th ed., McGraw Hill, 2021.