Prisoners Receiving Transplants - 1631 Words

As the prison population in America grows in numbers and increases in age, questions and debates about the allocation of medical resources to prisoners will grow in urgency. One issue which arises every so often is whether convicted felons, especially those who are awaiting capital punishment, should receive the same level of medical care as others in society - including scarce donor organs for the purpose of transplantation. As is often the case, the debate over whether a death row inmate should receive an organ transplant is not a single controversy, but rather several rolled into one. Being able to address the larger question requires disentangling the smaller questions and examining each in turn. What role, if any, should a person s†¦show more content†¦This represents an important shift because it eliminates many of the potential problems and dangers inherent in assessing the social and moral worth of other human beings. There is a long-recognized legal principle that w hile people who are not members of a community may deserve certain basic rights and privileges, they do not necessarily deserve all of the rights and privileges accorded to members. Thus, non-members have rights to life, liberty, free speech, etc., but they do not have the right to vote. There is very little debate over whether this principle is valid in general, but there is quite a bit of debate over just what qualifies as basic, minimum rights and privileges which everyone should have, regardless of their membership or citizenship status. This is especially true when it comes to health care because there is such a wide range of possible treatments available to people. Should prisoners receive only the very minimum necessary to keep them comfortable? Should expensive diagnostic and treatment options be made available to them? Where exactly should the line be drawn? If a prisoner does receive a lower standard of medical treatment and is later found to be innocent, what sort of responsibility do the state and society bear if he now leaves prison sicker than when he entered? Most peopleShow MoreRelatedInmates and Organ Transplants: An Ethical Dilemma Essay864 Words   |  4 Pageswrong (Judson, Harrison, 2010). With that in mind, organ transplants for inmates has become a subject in which many people are asking questions as to whether it is morally right or wrong. In the ABC News article entitled Death-Row Inmates Seeks Organ Transplant by Bryan Robinson, the issue of a death-row prisoner in Oregon, by the name of Horacio Alberto Reyes-Camarena, receiving priority over a law-abiding citizen for a kidney transplant is being addressed. The state pays for Reyes-Camarena’sRead MoreOrgan Harvesting in China Essay1401 Words   |  6 Pagesthis caption under a photo he had taken to support his article. It was reported in the article how executed prisoners had become the primary source of body organ transplants. Still to this day in China, organs are being removed from the bodies of Falun prisoners without consent from anyone, to be used as donor organs for patients in need. The moment they find someone in need, the prisoners are immediately made victims. The process works something like this: In China, the hospital notifies you inRead MoreThe Global Problem of Harveting Organs1734 Words   |  7 Pages(Hongda.) In order to buy food impoverished families only choice may be to sell their organs (Callahan.) Those who are precipitants of organs coming from Inmates are taking huge health risk. Jeff Testerman, author of â€Å"Organs of Condemned sought for Transplant†, stated â€Å"The prison population is such a high-risk group, particularly for hepatitis and AIDS.† When someone receives an organ from a donor within a prison’s walls, they are not always assured of the health security of the prisoner’s organs ofRead MoreEssay about Organ Transplants for Prisoners1411 Words   |  6 PagesIn the article â€Å"Wanted, Dead or Alive? Kidney Transplants in Inmates Awaiting Execution†, Jacob M. Appel argues that, despite the criminal justice system’s view that death-row inmates deserve to die, they should be given the same opportunity to extend their life as anyone else. â€Å"The United States Supreme Court has held since 1976 that prison inmates are entitled to the same medical treatment as the free public† (645). â€Å"When it comes to healthcare, ‘bad people’ are as equal as the rest of us† (646)Read MoreOrgan Donation Case Study Essay967 Words   |  4 Pagesare used to decide which patient should receive the transplant. The purpose of this paper is to not look at the personal history of the transplant candidate, but to evaluate the medical history provided to determine which recipient would have a higher quality of life upon receiving the organ transplant. There is a critical shortage of organ donations nationwide. Healthcare providers must strictly evaluate who should receive a heart transplant (Eisen, 2017). The goal of any organ transplantationRead MoreAssignment 2 Essay1008 Words   |  5 Pagesimpose on society. A utilitarian would argue that Roche was respecting the Chinese laws by first testing the drugs on Chinese patients. One could argue that prohibiting the research that Roche was performing could inhibit future Chinese patients from receiving a drug that could be necessary to sustain life. Roche’s Cell Cept had a beneficial plan for the Chinese society in creating a drug to help sustain life or fight the disease for their specific ethnicity. As a utilitarian, finding a resolution forRead MoreOrgan Donation Essay1469 Words   |  6 Pagesitself. Because our increased life span causes more people to require a replacement organ when theirs starts to fail, the demand has far outrun the supply and the future only lo oks to get worse. â€Å"Between the years 1988 and 2006 the number of transplants doubled, but the number of patients waiting for an organ grew six times as large.† (Orentlicher, 2009) Clearly our need for organs is growing much faster than what is available. So in an effort to catch up to demand, proposals that have surfacedRead MoreThe Punishment Of The United States1669 Words   |  7 Pagesare positive matches to anyone on the donor transplant list. Longo and many others want to give their organs to save lives, why are people telling them no, just because they are inmates. The receiver of the transplant and the inmate do not have to know each other, they don’t have to know anything about each other just that they are giving and organ and the other is receiving an organ to save their life. There is a scarcity of organ donors for transplants and as it continues to grow, alternative sourcesRead MoreThe Key to Solving The American Organ Allocation Essay1665 Words   |  7 PagesJustin, a South Carolina college student, died at the age of 23 while on the waiting list for a lung transplant. When Justin was three months old he was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, a disease which affects the lungs. Throughout his childhood he coped with his illness but at the age of 20 his health took a turn for the worst. Justin was on the waiting list for two years but no lungs came available in time. Organ allocation in the United States of America has become a heavily debated subject inRead MoreShould The United States Government Offer Incentives For1415 Words   |  6 Pagesdonate and receive organs in the U.S. People from other countries can travel to the United States to receive transplants and in most religions organ and tissue donation is believed to be an act of love and giving. Ma ny people believe that they will receive poor lifesaving efforts if they are an organ donor. In fact, the transplant team is not involved in lifesaving efforts whatsoever. The transplant team is not considered or contacted until the physician has deemed that he has exhausted all possible efforts