SOME CONTEMPORARY ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS RELATED TO ORGAN-TRANSPLANTATION

With the increasing number of transplantable organs and tissues, as we ll as improvements in transplantation results. has come a severe short age of organ donors, Consequently, new ethical dilemmas related to the fair allocation of available organs and the use of alternative source s of donor organs, are of growing concern. Establishing fair allocatio n priorities is a serious problem in organ transplantation. Ethically, they should be defined by society as a whole rather than exclusively by the medical profession. Proposed solutions for the organ donor shor tage, each with their unique ethical constraints. include the use of r elated donors, partial organ transplantation, cell transplantation usi ng fetal tissue, and the use of animal organs (''senotransplantation'' ). Commercial trading in donor organs must be regarded as an unethical activity rather than an ethical dilemma since the donors are motivate d by monetary rather than by humanitarian reasons. These ethical dilem mas could be largely avoided by an effective reduction in the severe s hortage of postmortal organ donations.