Respect for autonomy in systems of postmortem organ procurement: A comment

In 2015 Robert Veatch published the second edition of his Transplantation ethics, this time together with Lainie Ross. The chapters on postmortem organ procurement distinguish between ‘giving’ and ‘taking’ systems, and argue that ‘taking’ systems may promise a greater yield of organs for transplanta...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hartogh, Govert den (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Wiley-Blackwell [2019]
In: Bioethics
Year: 2019, Volume: 33, Issue: 5, Pages: 550-556
IxTheo Classification:NCH Medical ethics
Further subjects:B Organ Procurement
B presumed consent
B opt-in
B tacit consent
B Organ Donation
B opt-out
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
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Summary:In 2015 Robert Veatch published the second edition of his Transplantation ethics, this time together with Lainie Ross. The chapters on postmortem organ procurement distinguish between ‘giving’ and ‘taking’ systems, and argue that ‘taking’ systems may promise a greater yield of organs for transplantation, but inevitably violate a requirement of respect for the deceased's autonomy. That argument has been very influential, and is also representative of a way of thinking that is widespread in the literature and in public debate. In this paper I contend that it is conceptually flawed in a number of important respects. These concern the understanding of both the concept of ‘consent’ and the requirement of respect for autonomy, the role of the relatives in any procurement system, and the factors that actually determine the extent to which a system respects autonomy, under any interpretation of that requirement.
ISSN:1467-8519
Contains:Enthalten in: Bioethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/bioe.12553