ipl-logo

Summary Of John Harris Survival Lottery

984 Words4 Pages

John Harris, a prominent philosopher of modern day times, introduces the idea of a “Survival Lottery” in his 1975 essay, highlighting many biomed ethical topics that we still evaluate today. Whether it has to do with personal autonomy, utilitarian principles, or any other ethical issue, Harris’ essay challenges bioethical dilemmas. The essay introduces an idea where certain individuals would be sacrificed for their organs in order to benefit the society as a whole, and promote a greater good. In order to introduce his proposal, in the essay Harris uses an example of how one individual could save the lives of two people through his proposed lottery system. The idea challenges the value of human life and questions whether societal happiness as …show more content…

Many people, including myself, will argue that it is unethical to purposefully kill a human rather than allowing them to die naturally. This exact comparison is seen through the lens of killing an individual purposefully, just as killing to benefit others, or killing to benefit oneself. Either or is unethical because we then place the fate of someone's life in the hands of man, rather than the hands of God. The Survival Lottery by John Harris introduces a comprehensive yet compelling argument for maximizing the overall public good, while limiting suffrage. By testing traditional ethical norms and emphasizing the principles of utility, autonomy, and ethics, Harris’ proposal works to prioritize the overall good of society; all while trying to implicate fairness, and moral duty to his idea. However, due to the proposal lacking practicality of everyone in society agreeing to this proposal, the idea does create a possibility for increased societal happiness, and an overall reduction in the organ donation demand. Although this all may be true, I believe that the proposal by Harris violates personal autonomy, and remains unethical regardless of whether or not the whole society agrees on

Show More
Related

Rhetorical Analysis Of Organ Sales Will Save Lives By Joanna Mackay

740 Words | 3 Pages

MacKay put this in her article to make a point, if people can endanger themselves by doing everyday things then why should something that can help your well-being and health be outlawed? Some readers may think Mackay’s article was very one sided, she didn’t state much of a counterargument and when she did, she stated a rebuttal to help the readers see how there is really no wrong in this. One of MacKay’s counterargument had to deal with John Paul the second who states the “selling of organs is morally wrong and violates the dignity of the human person.” (MacKay 158)

Read More

Opt-Out Organ Donation Without Presumptions By Dr. Ben Saunders

1056 Words | 5 Pages

He Also argues the wrongful use of the word “presumed consent” which is currently viewed of his favored “Opt-out” system, where people didn’t have any saying in their consent, are automatically considered as agreeing to donate their organs. This causes a bit of moral issue because according the Dr. Saunders the public is more use to the idea of donate organs only with properly passed on consent by signing consent forms. Therefore, his proposed idea of using Opt-out system, presumed consent, there is a bit of

Read More

Summary Of Kidneys For Sale A Reconsideration By Tom Shulman

930 Words | 4 Pages

The story, “Kidneys for Sale: A Reconsideration” opinion favors both sides of the argument. Miriam Schulman creates a well-balanced stance on how she feels about the selling of organs. The article was first published in 1988 by the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. Ten years later

Read More

Summary Of Organ Sales Will Save Lives By Joanna Mackay

794 Words | 4 Pages

Furthermore, Joanna MacKay states, “Legalization of organ sales would give governments the authority and the opportunity to closely monitor these live kidney operations” (160). With that being said, MacKay provides yet another statement to further her point; legalization of organ sales would make this process safe. Also, MacKay claims that the risk of kidney donation does not justify for the outlawing of this process; the benefits outweigh the risks. In viewing the dangers and advantages of this process, her point is arguably understandable and

Read More

Summary Of Organ Sales Will Save Lives By Joanna Mackay

779 Words | 4 Pages

The Choice of Life or Death Choosing between life or death is not a decision that you want to make. Of course pretty much everyone is going to choose life over death, but is some cases you don’t have that choice. In the article “Organ Sales Will Save Lives”, written by the author Joanna MacKay, she presents an argument about whether or not the sale of organs should be legalized. She builds her credibility by giving numerous facts, examples, and statistics on the argument. People die everyday waiting and hoping to get the call about finding a match for a kidney so that they can have a kidney transplant done.

Read More

Rhetorical Analysis Of Organs For Sale

1010 Words | 5 Pages

She makes a compelling argument as to why legalizing the sale of living donor organs is a great way to address today's organ shortage problem. She offers in-depth justifications for the moral and ethical precepts at play in the argument over organ donation.. She addresses potential objections and concerns in her writing, and she does so in a way that strengthens,’ her authority and knowledge of the subject, which in turn helps readers develop a sense of trust and dependability. I don’t see in any way how she has failed to give us a reason to not trust

Read More

Brief Summary Of The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

812 Words | 4 Pages

The Lottery, was published by the magazine The New Yorker, the story is written by Shirley Jackson. It was a clear warm sunny day on the 27 of June, it was also the day of the lottery. The farming village of about 300 people started gathering up at about 10:00 o'clock. The children met up and started collecting rocks as the parents of the children started gathering up in the town square. As they were meeting up Mr.Summers and Mr.Graves came with the black box.

Read More

What Is The Thesis Of The Survival Lottery By John Harris

897 Words | 4 Pages

897 Witte Precis 2 In The Survival Lottery, John Harris argues about the difference between killing and letting die. He presents this information through questioning it in a thought experiment. In the thought experiment he presents a situation where two people are in need of organ transplants like a heart and set of lungs. If there is a stock of spare organs then to save the lives of the patients, all that the doctors would have to do would be to do the transplant. If they refused to do the surgery and the patient died as a result then the doctors essentially killed their patients.

Read More

Summary Of When Self-Determination Runs Amok

1800 Words | 8 Pages

In this paper, I will be discussing Daniel Callhan’s essay, When Self-Determination Runs Amok, focusing on both his strongest and weakest arguments within his essay. I will begin by summarizing Callhan’s essay while pointing out how he uses the four principles of bioethics—beneficence, non-maleficence, and autonomy and justice—to support his claims. Moreover, I will analyze what I believe to be the single strongest argument in Callahan’s essay, his claim that euthanasia can lead to dire consequences. To consider possible objections, I will use Dan W. Brock’s essay, Voluntary Active Euanthasia. Conversely, I will also analyze the single weakest argument in Callahan’s essay, his association of euthanasia with dueling and even slavery— arguing

Read More

John Harris Survival Lottery

1609 Words | 7 Pages

Philosopher John Harris, proposed the experiment of the survival lottery. The survival lottery basically says that if two people (Y and Z) are facing death and could be saved by killing one other person (A) and using their organs for transplant, then we should go ahead and kill A to save the lives of the ones who need the organ transplants. The argument he is making is based strictly on the grounds that the number of lives saved would greatly outway the number of lives that were taken from individuals. Some basic assumptions would need to be made as well. First off, each life would have to be assumed to be of equal value, two lives saved are more valuable than the killing of a single life, the two lives would have to be cured and of a better

Read More

Organ Donation Proposal

1105 Words | 5 Pages

In the United States alone, 19 people die every day waiting on an organ transplant that could have saved their lives. The only solution to this problem is getting more drivers registered as organ donors. It has been proposed that the states automatically register their drivers as donors and it is up to the drivers to go through the procedure of opting out if that is what they wish. I agree with this proposal because you still have the freedom to make your choice but most people would not want to go through the process of opting out, so the number of organ donors would be greatly increased.

Read More

Persuasive Essay: Everyone Should Be An Organ Donor

577 Words | 3 Pages

In today 's society, people have a choice whether or not they want to be an organ donor, but many people die each day waiting for a perfect match. Though death is a tragic event, many people can benefit from it. Organ Donation should be required because an increase in donations can save a numerous amount of lives, inform the public about the science, and lower the statistical numbers in America. Increasing Organ Donation will be highly appreciated by the people, along with saving more lives each and everyday. By choosing to donate, the recipients are giving the suffering a second chance at life.

Read More

Analysis: When Living Is A Fate Worse Than Death

859 Words | 4 Pages

Life or Death Who chooses death over life? Sometimes we have to make this decision over a loved one when there is no hope for their recovery. It would be incredibly hard to make this life or death decision on another human being and twice as hard when it is someone we love. The author discusses the argument of this controversial topic of sustaining life at any cost or dying peacefully as an ethical issue. An ethicist, a person who specializes in or writes on ethics, can provide valuable discernment with respect to right and wrong motives or actions.

Read More

Survival Lottery Research Paper

681 Words | 3 Pages

The Survival Lottery The idea of the “survival lottery” helps maximize the amount of lives that can be saved by doctors. It allows doctors to receive organ donations from healthy people, who are randomly selected to die and donate their organs to medicine, rather than having no choice but to let the innocent patient(s) die due to a lack of readily available organs. The point of the survival lottery is to make sure that as few humans die as possible, hence why it is acceptable to kill one person to possibly save two (or even more). I will argue that is not morally permissible to institute a survival lottery because all people expose themselves to different amounts of risks during their respective lives.

Read More

Organ Trafficking Persuasive Speech

1443 Words | 6 Pages

Humans must have complete autonomy over their bodies. Their safety must be taken into serious consideration and the vulnerable and less fortunate ones must be protected from being duped into such an unethical crime that is stimulated by dishonest doctors and organ brokers. So, in order to achieve this safety level and hopefully put this illegal behavior at an end, I encourage all of you to take action and become organ donors. The supply of organs will increase legally; thus, the number of organs sold unethically in the Black Market will decrease. Tragic expressions such as “HER HEART IS MISSING” won’t be seen anymore in bold letters on the news or on newspapers’ first page.

Read More

More about Summary Of John Harris Survival Lottery

Open Document