THE CONCEPT OF THE MORALITY OF ST.

THOMAS IN RELATION TO THE ORGAN

TRANSPLANT: AN ASSESSMENT TO THE MORALITY OF ORGAN SELLER
A Paper by Romeo M. Macali Jr., February 2023

ABSTRACT
The idea of organ transplantation is as old as mythology and ancient literature. The possibility of
replacing deceased organs or lost blood with healthy organs and blood taken from animals or other
human beings was an old dream whose time and realization did not come until the twentieth century.
There are reports that skin grafts and transfusions of both human and animal blood have been attempted
in the past. Blood transfusion, however, became an accepted medical procedure only when the different
blood types and their mutual compatibility or incompatibility were discovered and a method was
developed to preserve blood. It was then that blood transfusion was widely used, especially during
World War I. Blood, however, does not raise ethical problems simply because it regenerates. As a result
of the rapid progress of technology, other organ transplants became possible. Transplanted organs are
the kidney, cornea, skin, heart, lung, liver, pancreas, bone marrow, ovaries, and testicles. That has now
become an ethical problem in our society because of the widespread selling of body organs, most
especially kidneys.
Organ sellers became the testing animal or subject of the case, and the concept shall be the light
to truly understand the immorality behind the dark business in the medical world, most especially in the
field of organ transplantation. The concept of morality of St. Thomas Aquinas will help us discern our
every human action in our every course of life, specifically action that is a human act. These will truly
explain that organ transplantation itself is moral simply because its main intention is to save lives. But
through the human greed and malice in their minds, immorality comes out. In layman’s terms, it will
help us discern which course of organ transplantation is moral and where immorality occurs. Thus, the
rationale for the synthesis of the concept of morality according to St. Thomas Aquinas must stand as the
basis of the immoral act of organ selling. Hence, the main argument of these papers is the philosophical
concept of morality of St. Thomas Aquinas as an attempt to see through the immorality of organ selling.
Keeping the prior statement in mind, the following topics will be scrutinized systematically in
following order: Part I will introduce the concept of morality of St. Thomas Aquinas. These will include
the other topics that are involved in truly understanding the said concept; Part II will deal with the short
history of organ transplantation and the living donor. The discussion will be limited to wealth as the
driving force in which our discussion is being limited; Part III will deal with the movement of said
concept to the application of organ selling.
Hence, this paper will be a discussion on the "assessment of immorality of organ sellers that is
viewed through the mirror of the concept of morality of St. Thomas."
KEYWORDS
human action| morality| organ selling| organ transplant|
Sources
St. Thomas
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