In this essay, I will argue that the Trillium Gift of Life Network was not ethically permitted to deny Delilah Saunders a liver transplant.
An indigenous advocate, Delilah Saunders, was denied a life-saving liver transplant due to protocols. Trillium Gift of Life Network’s protocol is that individuals with an alcohol-associated liver disease is to be sober for six months in order to receive a liver transplant.
Discrimination and Assumptions Against an Indigenous Individual
Liver transplants are a significant resource, however it is morally wrong to deny an individual treatment because they are the cause for their own disease. The six month sobriety criterion is discriminatory towards Delilah’s health issue associated with alcohol and her
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past lifestyle. There are other factors that could cause liver disease, which are not being assessed in her liver transplant consultation. Doctor’s state that Delilah’s liver damage was due to Tylenol poisoning and was not directly associated with alcohol. Furthermore, there is systemic discrimination against Indigenous people, and other marginalized groups.
Due to hardships of residential schools, some indigenous people may suffer from alcohol use disorder. There is a clear stereotype in this case towards indigenous people drinking and prone to relapse.
It is unethical to deny Delilah a transplant in order to save another life. Trillium Gift of Life Network cannot ethically decide who deserves to die or live on basis of stereotypes (She is indigenous, therefore may relapse to alcohol after transplant) and assumptions (alcohol-associated liver disease). Unequal treatment of indigenous people is unjustified.
For example, heavy drinking is considered morally wrong, however smoking is not. A smoker, who refuses to stop smoking is still able to receive medical care. Furthermore, if an individual breaks their leg due to their own personal conduct, doctors will still treat them. However, they are prone to breaking their leg again in the future. Everyones life is equally important. Therefore, it is unethical to prioritize one’s life over another and give one a greater treatment.
If Delilah should be penalized for her actions, then other individuals in a similar situation should be penalized too. For example, smokers should not be approved to get surgery because the health issue was
self-induced. Doctors say that Delilah will relapse after the liver transplant, therefore she should be denied a transplant. However, a report shows that there is a 73% success rate of transplants in individuals with a past alcohol use disorder and 35 individuals survived for 6 months or longer. Furthermore, Trillium Gift of Life Network should exclude other groups with an equally or worse health issue, instead of targeting individuals with an alcohol use disorder. In conclusion, there is no good moral or medical reason to deny Delilah a liver transplant based on assumptions, her past lifestyle and ethnicity.
The Belmont Report identifies three core principles that are to be respected when using human subjects for research. The three ethical principles are: respect for persons, beneficence and justice. In the case of Henrietta Lacks each of these fundamental components are violated. The consent that Henrietta provided was not sufficient for the procedures that were conducted.
At the beginning of her argument, Satel claims that the current transplant list systems are ineffective, and are causing a shortage of organs availability, thereby allowing countless patients to suffer. At first, she makes an invali...
... be low educated, likely to experience previous marriage or common-law union, and also more likely to be unemployed or have unemployed partner (Brownridge, 2008). Those aboriginal men who live on reserve are highly engaged in substance abuse such as alcohol. Most of the domestic violence tends to occur due to the consequence of high intake of alcohol. In aboriginal family violence offences, “69% were committed while the accused was under the influence of drugs or alcohol …just over half (54%) of the victims of a family violence assault were under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the assault” (Paletta, 2008). There are various reasons why aboriginal people are highly involved with substance abuse and are more likely to commit suicide than non-aboriginal people (i.e. socioeconomic conditions, unemployment, traumatic history, residential school, etc.).
There are some social determinants factors contribute to Australian indigenous people’s mental health disorders. The addiction incidence of mental health disorders and substance misuse problems is terribly high. Aboriginal Australians suffer from unemployment and that can give rise to substance misuse, anxiety, depression, and sometimes severe mental health conditions. The social isolation risks rose up with development of social exclusion and hardship, such as addiction, divorce, disability, s...
‘The principle that a person must give their permission before they receive any type of medical treatment. Consent is required from a patient regardless of the type of treatment being undertaken, to an organ donation’ (Advanced Nursing Practice Toolkit, 2014).
Paul, B., Valapour, M., Bartele, D., Abbott-Penny, A., & Kahn, J. (2004). Ethics of organ transplantation. Retrieved from http://www.ahc.umn.edu/img/assets/26104/Organ_Transplantation.pdf
Dear colleagues, please note a sensitive case has been brought to us to deliberate on. David, who is a father, has requested to donate his second kidney to his daughter, Renada. What is more, she urgently needs to undergo a kidney transplant. As you know, the matter has gained the attention of the entire country, and it is our duty to ensure that we solve the case with utmost care using the applicable principles of bioethics. Renada’s case is very challenging and sensitive because we have to balance two critical aspects. Either we agree to grant Renada’s father his wish of saving his daughter and possibly harm his health in the process, or we go against the request and save his life and millions of taxpayers’ money that would be used for his dialysis after the operation. I would like to draw your attention to the respect of autonomy as per the principles of bioethics, which lays emphasis on the practice of informed consent. According to the case at hand, David Patterson, who has been sentenced to 12
Latham, P.K., & Napier, T.L. (1992). Psychosocial consequences of alcohol misuse in the family of origin. The International Journal of the Addictions, 27, 1137-1158.
We all know that transplants save lives. Liver, heart, renal, and other organ transplants are hardly controversial. But what happens when transplants do not save lives? What happens when they actually endanger them? At least twenty-one hands and arms have been transplanted since 1998 (and one in 1964) (1). Sure, the cosmetic and functional value of having a new hand could seem like a miracle to those without hands or arms, but do these benefits outweigh the risks?
Diane called all of her friends to say goodbye, including Dr. Quinn, and took her life two days after they met. This is a fascinating case because it presents the distinction between a patient’s right to refuse treatment and a physician’s assistance with suicide. Legally, Diane possessed the right to refuse treatment, but she would have faced a debilitating, painful death, so the issue of treatment would be a moot point. It would be moot in the sense that Diane seemed to refuse treatment because the odds were low, even if she survived she would spend significant periods of time in the hospital and in pain, and if she didn’t survive she would spend her last days in the hospital. If Diane were to merely refuse treatment and nothing else (as the law prescribes) than she would not have been able to avoid the death which she so dearly wanted to avoid.
Imagine if one of your friends or family members was in need of a liver
Tracy’s father was faced with an unfortunate decision, and in his decision, I cannot condemn him for his actions. Now saying this I don’t believe what he did was particularly the right decision or particularly the wrong decision. As for his life sentence, it’s quite outrageous. My reasoning for this is because of his actual intentions and his mental rationale in doing so. He claims that he did it out of love and mercy, which I whole-heartedly agree with. With Tracy’s condition already being a significant trouble to live with and the fact that her surgeries brought her much pain and suffering is something that would be hard to bear. They claimed that she had the mental capacity of a four month old baby, so in that sense, it’s almost like watching an innocent baby constantly in pain. One part of the case says that Tracy’s mother believed that the many surgeries especially the one that removed her upper thigh bone were not surgeries but mutilations. I can see why her mother would think this. I can only imagine what it would be like to watch your loved one constantly be mutilated and going under the knife. Surgery and visits to the doctor alone can be stressful enough in itself, let alone ones that can be perceived as mutilations. Additionally the case states that Tracy had 5-6 seizures a day, which would imaginably be hard to watch and care for. Ultimately, I cannot in any way condemn Tracy’s
Zimmerman, M. A., Wachs, M., Bak, T., & Kam, I. (n.d.). The History of Liver Transplantation
All of this said to be shown just how medical advancements are being made daily leading to such a drastic improvement in success rates of liver transplantation. (Manzarbeltia, 2015) Before this time, if you happen to get end stage liver disease (ESLD), this was fatal and there were no definitive treatments at all. Although we now have the chance to give certain organs to patients who are awaiting a life-saving transplant, we face an ethical dilemma in the medical world of medicine as to who exactly should get the organ between to individuals if only one organ is available? In the case study found in the textbook we are faced between the extremely tough decision of who should get the one liver available for transplant, Mr. Mann who has liver cirrhosis from his lifelong alcohol addiction or Mrs. Bay who has Hepatitis C for an unknown
...olic liver disease, NAFLD is one of the most common reasons this procedure is being done in the US. Furthermore, with the increasing incidence of obesity and type 2 diabetes, it is predicted that fatty liver disease may become the leading cause of liver transplants.