Description
The first human heart transplant in the United States took place in a relatively short span of time. Dr. Michael DeBakey performed the first successful heart bypass surgery in 1964. Less than four years later, Dr. Denton Cooley shocked the world by announcing that he had successfully transplanted a heart in Everett Thomas, who lived for 204 days with a heart donated by a 15 year old girl. Until Cooley achieved this revolutionary breakthrough, those with progressive heart failure were doomed to die. Cooley and his team quickly performed a second surgery which was followed by a series of other operations. At first, there was no real shortage of organs; the carnage on the U.S. highways alone was enough to supply the limited number of healthy hearts that these teams could reasonably expect to transplant. But as word spread among those dying, the demand for this radical surgery skyrocketed. The result has now been radical shortages of organs.
How would you propose to allocate the body organs? That is, who lives and who dies? Why do you propose this method of allocation? That is, who benefits and what are the advantages? Discuss any disadvantages of your plan? Review different proposals submitted by your classmates and be prepared to defend your position. In order to receive full consideration for examination points, you must make a meaningful comment on at least two other postings.
Discussion