A PRÁTICA SIMULADA V (CÍVEL) - CCJ0151

Organ Donation

Nowadays, a very polemic thematic has been returning to take place on discussions: organ donation. Some people are against this practice for several reasons, most of them being religious beliefs, like the wait of some miracle. However, others are completely in favor because they think that the action of donating organs can recover lives that  can be saved yet, differently from the dead, which health state is irreversible. Personally, I think 

torgan donation is really a very charitive action that can save people, but there are many risks and questions involved, so it needs very precautions and considerations before being made, especially the ones who involve the donators.

Firstly, we need to consider the ethical issues. Normally, the organs are withdrawn when the patients have brain death but, ultimately, according to the site “NHS: Blood and Transplant”, there are some controversial cases when the organs are donated after the stop of heart beats in a process called DCD, when the brain IS stills active and the patient’s body IS stills alive with the help of electronic gadgets. According to the site “The Atlantic”, the main polemic behind this technique it is that, in some cases like the one of the boy who died at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in August 2013, the neurological damaged patient's death is artificially quicken to increase the preservation of the organs. So we are brought to a disturbing question: When DOES an individual stops from being a patient and becomes a corpse?

After being made this consideration, I think we have also to improve the donors’ security. During the organ transportation from living donors, like kidneys, sometimes there is permanent damage for the people who donate. One of the most sad cases was the one of Walter Wood , which story is told by the site CBS News.  His abdominal muscles ruptured after he donated a kidney, making him lose his job, have constant pains and come close to bankruptcy. 

Therefore, I am favorable to organ donation, but I also defend that the system behind this must be improved to guarantee the security of the donors to avoid situations like the one that happened with Walter Wood and to come up with an answer to clarify the ethical consequences of techniques like DCD.

CORRECTION: ATTENTION TO THE RELATIVE CLAUSES;

 THE WORDS HIGHLIGHTED IN GREEN ARE THE ONES ADDED BY ME

GRADE: 5,5