Purpose:
In
this pathfinder, you’ll find valuable resources concerning human organ
transplants, more specifically, organ donation and selling. The pathfinder is
designed to gather sources necessary to answer two main questions. “Is selling
organs ethical?” and “If you are listed as an organ donor, will doctors let you
die?” You’ll be able to develop your own opinions on these controversial
issues.
Print Sources:
Scheper-Hughes,
Nancy. "Truth and Rumor on the Organ Trail." Natural History.
October,
1998: p47-56.
This article is a little wordy,
but it makes good points about organ selling/stealing in poor countries.
Hoffman, Merle.
"Body Ethics." On the Issues. Fall, 1995: p3+.
This article is a good read.
Although Hoffman takes a while to get to the point, she raises interesting
issues, and emphasizes how far people are willing to go to get organs.
Davidson, Margaret.
"Indecent Proposals?" New Physician. October, 1993: p14-19.
This is a really good article
that covers pros and cons of providing some form of financial incentive to
organ donors or their families. I recommend you read this article.
Banks, Gloria J.
“Legal and Ethical Safeguards…” American Journal of Law and
Medicine. March, 1995 v21 n1: p45-110.
This
is an excellent article. I got it through BigChalk, but it originally appeared
in the American Journal of Law and Medicine. It is a long read (about 30
pages unformatted) but it covers everything you can imagine on organ
transplants. A must-read.
Electronic Sources:
“Issues
and Concepts.” Ascension Health, Inc.
This site has good definitions of
acts relating to organ harvesting and transplants.
"Organ Selling."
Issues and Controversies. 17 July, 2002.
This is a good article, with lots
of statistics, charts, etc. It has links to good definitions. Lots of good
pro/con for legalizing organ sale/compensation.
“Organs Watch.” University
of California Berkeley. 1998.
This is a
website run by U of C Berkeley that has good pictures. (Most if not all of the
pictures and anti-organ selling propaganda. Most were taken in Brazil and Latin
America, where illegal and legal organ harvesting occurs.
Gateway Sites:
This has
lots of specific categories. If you want to know more about specific policy involving
certain organs, or about organ donor cards, look here first.
United Network for
Organ Sharing (UNOS)
See note below for UNOS.
Related Organizations:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’s “OrganDonor.Gov”
Government
run website, which is worthy of only a glace or two. There isn’t much content.
Most of the links on the site are to UNOS. Has reasonable good “FAQ” and
“NewsRoom” sections.
United Network for
Organ Sharing (UNOS)
UNOS’s web site isn’t easy to navigate and it’s hard
to find what you need. But, it has good links. (To get there, go to the main
page. On the top bar, click “Resources”. On the left bar, you’ll see “Bioethics”
and “Resource Center”; they are the only two sections worth your time. UNOS
also has a large selection of media resources. (See “Newsroom”.) Within that
section, you’ll find many charts, graphs, etc. on organ transplants/donation.
(They have an amazing selection of books. However, this will only help you if
you live in or near Richmond, VA.)
Experts/Professionals:
Although he doesn’t have his own site (the one linked is via Mayo Clinic Scottsdale, where he works) there is still some information on him. He has aprox. 90% survival rate with liver and kidney transplant patients. He is the most vocal, I'm not saying in any way he is the best, he just tended to be in a lot of articles.
Good Search Engines and Subscription Databases:
If you need print sources, BigChalk is the best
place to begin. You’ll find lots of journals, newspaper articles, and magazine
articles that are relevant.
SIRS is a gateway to lots of
different articles, mostly basic information. It isn't the best, but it did
have a few good articles. (The articles by Davidson, Scheper, and Hoffman are
from SIRS.)
This site gives you access to a
couple really good articles. This isn't on the top of the list, but it's pretty
good.
If you’re using the free-web, start here.
Useful Keywords:
**Important Note: Most, if not all of these resources are biased. They tend to
be pro-organ donation. Try to keep this in mind when you’re reading.
Don’t
give up if you can't find anything useful at first. It takes a while to get to
the good “stuff”. But once you find it, you’ll have more than you know what to
do with.
To
make an educated decision about anything, you need to have all the facts.
Hopefully, this pathfinder has helped you to get them.
-Martha Zeeman 11/09/02