Mandatory Autopsies and Organ Conscription
Creator
Hershenov, David B.
Delaney, James J.
Bibliographic Citation
Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 2009 December; 19(4): 367-391
Abstract
Laws requiring autopsies have generated little controversy. Yet it is considered unconscionable to take organs without consent for transplantation. We think an organ draft is justified if mandatory autopsies are. We reject the following five attempts to show why a mandatory autopsy policy is legitimate, but organ conscription is not: (1) The social contract gives the state a greater duty to protect its citizens from each other than from disease. (2) There is a greater moral obligation to prevent murders than disease-caused deaths because killing people is morally worse than allowing people to die. (3) Autopsies do not confiscate body parts, but organ transplants do. (4) The citizenry's knowledge that their organs are very likely to be taken will generate more anxiety than the remote possibility of a mandatory autopsy. (5) A religious conviction that one's organs will be needed in order to be resurrected is threatened by organ transplantation but not by autopsies that "return" body parts.
Permanent Link
Find in a Library.Full Text from Publisher
http://timetravel.mementoweb.org/memento/2009/http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/kennedy_institute_of_ethics_journal/
http://hdl.handle.net/10822/1026223
Date
2009-12Collections
Metadata
Show full item recordRelated items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Why Consent May Not Be Needed for Organ Procurement
Delaney, James; Hershenov, David B. (2009-08)Most people think it is wrong to take organs from the dead if the potential donors had previously expressed a wish not to donate. Yet people respond differently to a thought experiment that seems analogous in terms of moral ...