For the past year I have interned in two different cardiac rehab settings. Over that time I have met several people in different stages of the process of getting a heart transplant. Some people I have worked with have had to wear something called a Life Vest which while waiting for a heart transplant that they may never get. Throughout my time working with the patients I developed relationships with them and learned about what they went through. This is what made me interested in the ethics and distribution of heart transplants specifically; but organ transplants in general. I wanted to find out how a person gets on the waitlist, how it is decided who gets the organ, and other things about the transplant process that aren’t general knowledge to people who haven’t gone through it.
Transplants in general have made medical leaps and bounds throughout the past 60 years or so. In 1954, the first successful kidney transplant was done; from one identical twin brother to another. (Paul 2004) A little over a decade later, the first successful heart transplant was done. The transplant itself was successful, however the transplant itself
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This was considered very wrong by other countries and multiple doctors went to court over cases involving this point. (trey 2013) It came to be known that inmates were possibly being executed sooner just because they may fit the need of a patient on an organ waitlist at the time. (Trey 2013) It became such a prevalent way of getting organs that according to official statements, 90% of all organ donations in China come from executed prisoners. Through coerced consent while the prisoners are alive, China has been able to continue harvesting organs in this manner. In order to shun China for practicing this form of medicine, all research papers from China concerning organ transplantation has been boycotted by the medical community. (Trey