Dodd Ouyang Ethics February 15th 2012 Jennifer Symansky

Case number 2 kidney transplant

Life, a simple word that means everything we value. It is the essence of our planet and when it comes to saving a life, usually people will do it in a heartbeat, but what happens when saving a life also costs one. This is exactly whats happening in case number two. Alice is in severe condition for already several years waiting for a transplant and Tom cant decide for himself because he has mental disability. Should someone be able to do something to the other person without their consent, or is it just wrong because its like stealing something real personal. Let us analyze this from Alices point of view since she is the one who is waiting for the transplant. To determine if this is a good choice, one should determine all the positive consequences that this will result in. If she accept the kidney transplant, she will get off medication, she will go home but most of all, she will not die. Alice has already suffered for several years and she is lucky to still be alive. Even though she knows that Tom has mental disorder and cannot approve of this operation, she should accept this transplant because she will live. Kidney transplant is also not that dangerous because one can function with only one kidney, the person only need to control the amount of

alcohol entering his body and with Toms mental disabilities, Im sure he doesnt drink much. So by taking one of his kidneys that he barely uses, he could someone elses life and that, even if you are mentally disabled can understand easily. On the other hand Tom here is a grown man and as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stats All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood taking his organ without his consent is basically a violation the rule of life and equality. He also has mental disability which means that he is also under special medical care even if its not mentioned in the text. By removing an organ on a person with mutated DNA could cause severe health issues including death because his protein structure is already weaker than the norm. But most of all, its just morally wrong to take something from someone without their approval especially when the thing in question is an organ and when the person in question is a mentally disabled human been. To close this case, I would say that Alice should refuse this transplant because there is just so much wrong involved. If she accepts, she will violate an international declaration and can be prosecuted in front of the international court of justice. She has already managed to stay alive for several years so Im sure that a couple of more years waiting for a donor wouldnt be so bad. Life without justice is nothing and to live with the fact that you stole someones kidney is unbearable, waiting for another one is the only answer.