Introduction Organ transplant is an old practice in the medical field. However, successful transplantation did not occur then until the twentieth century when the discovery of blood types and compatibility were discovered. It also came as a result of the discovery of food preservation methods which contributed to blood transfusions being accepted as a medical practice: this led to numerous blood transfusions. The first tissue transplant attempts were done in the 1920’s and more research was done to include organ transplants. The first organ transplant was tried in dogs where Dr. Emmerich discovered that the graft kidney remained compatible and functioned longer if the recipient and donor have a similar genetic make-up. The first recorded …show more content…
Every nation has laws governing them so does ethics and code of conduct in the medical field. Major ethical issues become a threat which in most cases are settled in the courts. We will now discuss each of the ethical issues surrounding organ transplant as follows: a. Ethical issues involving the donor Organs can be obtained from a deceased person, a living donor, in infant donor or from a human fetus. Decease donors in most cases write a will prior to their deaths permitting their own organs to be given to someone else. Apparently, this is considered to be the most appropriate because it does not cause any harm, especially physical harm to the donor. Furthermore, it is the will of the deceased that the living should respect and not go against. However, this kind of donation is against cultural and religious beliefs of some individuals who feel that dead people deserve their last respect. Other issues arise when a person is declared dead when they really aren’t because sometimes mistakes can be done in authentication. Living donors are not left out either in ethical discussions. Some think it is wrong to mutilate a person for the sake of another. For instance, the catholic denomination consider organ transplantation unethical because it goes against the totality principle which states that one part of the body can be sacrificed for the well-being of the rest of the body. No one is obliged to give their organs as a donation and therefore the informed consent has also been an ethical issue. Before harvesting an organ, the donor has to be fully informed about the procedure, the consequences and only after they confirm themselves as donors should the harvesting be