The Dead Donor Rule: A Defense

Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 38 (4):426-440 (2013)
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Abstract

Miller, Truog, and Brock have recently argued that the “dead donor rule,” the requirement that donors be determined to be dead before vital organs are procured for transplantation, cannot withstand ethical scrutiny. In their view, the dead donor rule is inconsistent with existing life-saving practices of organ transplantation, lacks a cogent ethical rationale, and is not necessary for maintenance of public trust in organ transplantation. In this paper, the second of these claims will be evaluated. (The first and third are not addressed.) The claim that the dead donor rule lacks a cogent ethical rationale will be shown to be an expression of the contemporary rejection of the moral significance of the traditional distinction between killing and allowing to die. The moral significance of this traditional distinction, and the associated norm that doctors should not kill their patients, will be defended, and this critique of it shown to be unsuccessful

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Citations of this work

How (not) to think of the ‘dead-donor’ rule.Adam Omelianchuk - 2018 - Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 39 (1):1-25.
The ethical obligation of the dead donor rule.Anne L. Dalle Ave, Daniel P. Sulmasy & James L. Bernat - 2020 - Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 23 (1):43-50.
Abandoning the Dead Donor Rule.Anthony P. Smith - 2023 - Journal of Medical Ethics 49 (10):707-714.
Ontological Classifications and Human Rationality in Bioethics.Alexandra T. Romanyshyn - 2019 - Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 44 (4):391-402.

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References found in this work

Exploitation.Alan Wertheimer - 1996 - Princeton University Press.
Autonomy and Adaptive Preferences.Ben Colburn - 2011 - Utilitas 23 (1):52-71.
The Dead Donor Rule.John A. Robertson - 1999 - Hastings Center Report 29 (6):6.
The Dead Donor Rule: Can It Withstand Critical Scrutiny?F. G. Miller, R. D. Truog & D. W. Brock - 2010 - Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 35 (3):299-312.

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