Posted on 05/11/2010 8:30:18 PM PDT by antiobamacare
It was only a matter of time before someone would construct a serious formal argument for solving the growing organ shortage by euthanasing brain-dead or unconscious. It has finally happened. The only surprise is that it has been made by an Oxford don who is the editor of the leading journal, Bioethics.
Professor Julian Savulescu and his associate Dominic Wilkinson, in an early on-line article, “Should we allow organ donation euthanasia? Alternatives for maximizing the number and quality of organs for transplantation”, contend that their proposal could supply as many as 2,200 more organs each year in the UK.
Savulescu and Wilkinson’s idea runs like this. It is indecent that 450 people die in Britain while waiting for an organ. People who are on life support or who are brain-dead are potentially a good source of organs, as each body can yield as many as nine of them. Organs taken from living patients are most suitable for transplant, because every second after the heart stops beating decreases the chances of transplant success. Patients would, of course, have to assent to the procedure before they became unconscious. And they envisage taking organs only from patients who would die soon anyway.
Adopting their proposal would be a revolution in medical ethics, they acknowledge, as doctors have always been forbidden to kill patients. And they also realise that the public would be unlikely to embrace the idea. “But if we can save even one life, that is something of great moral importance,” they write. “Many lives could be saved even if only a small percentage of people opted for [organ donation euthanasia].”
Their principal concern is to solve the organ shortage, but this idea also provides a strong argument for euthanasia: “although most arguments for euthanasia are distinguished from questions of organ donation...
(Excerpt) Read more at thewoodwardreport.com ...
>>It was only a matter of time before someone would construct a serious formal argument for solving the growing organ shortage by euthanasing brain-dead...<<
Well, I’ll miss some of my liberal friends, but it is for The Greater Good after all...
Much more ethical, but still objectionable to some: solve the shortage by allowing people to be paid to donate - that is, allow a free market in organs - which is presently banned. (And, surprise surprise, there’s a shortage of something with a declared worth of zero.)
Here it comes. Right on cue. The one thing everyone insisted absolutely couldn’t possibly happen. Surprise! Surprise!
Savulescu and Wilkinson could make this number drop to 448 all by themselves, without ever having to sell their indecent idea.
As with all population control advocates.....”you first”...
BINGO!
Well isn’t that just f*****g brilliant. Why didn’t I think of that?
Can the sarcasm get any thicker? No. Not with out getting banned.
Euthanasia and bioethics in the same sentence ... who would have thunk it.
Why kill them first?
Works for me. Where do I sign up?
That’s not ethical!
The man should be fired and prohibited from working in medicine ever again.
Right to Die = Duty to Die
.....Solve the organ shortage with euthanasia, says leading bioethicist....
Yeah! Just like muslim Kosovo Albanians do!!!!
These two pixies stole this “idea” from the Chicoms. They’ve been doing this for years.
Never say never. If it is possible to think it, someone will suggest it or just flat out do it. And because it can be thought of or done, there are those who will think it should be. I'm just thrilled with the irony of the term “bioethicist”.
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