Canada debates ethics of 79-year-old man receiving heart from 55-year-old man.A 79-year-old Canadian who received a new heart has touched off a debate on transplant surgery ethics ethics, in philosophy, the study and evaluation of human conduct in the light of moral principles. Moral principles may be viewed either as the standard of conduct that individuals have constructed for themselves or as the body of obligations and duties that a .Last month at the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton, Ray Nelson received the heart of a 55-year-old donor whose organ normally would have been rejected because of its advanced age. Furthermore, Nelson exceeded by 14 years the traditional maximum age for transplantation. The fact that Nelson is a director of the Alberta Treasury Branches, a government-owned financial institution, and also is a friend of Edmonton heart transplant heart transplant Procedure to remove a diseased heart and replace it with a healthy one from a legally dead donor. The first was performed in 1967 by Christiaan Barnard. specialist Dennis Modry, MD raised questions about favoritism and special treatment. "One has to wonder whether or not the process was being manipulated to provide some advantage to someone who otherwise might not be eligible," said Douglas Kinsella T. Douglas Kinsella, CM (15 February 1932 - 15 June 2004), BA, MD, FACP, FRCPC was a Canadian expert on medical ethics and founder of Canada's National Council on Ethics in Human Research. , MD, a lecturer on medical ethics medical ethics The moral construct focused on the medical issues of individual Pts and medical practitioners. See Baby Doe, Brouphy, Conran, Jefferson, Kevorkian, Quinlan, Roe v Wade, Webster decision. at the University of Calgary. Arvind Koshal, MD, regional director hospital's cardiac science program, acknowledged that the committee of cardiologists, social workers, and others that approved the transplant took unusual steps. But Koshal said that while 65 had heretofore been considered the maximum age for a transplant, that was never "carved in stone Adj. 1. carved in stone - no longer changeable; "the agreement is not yet set in stone" set in stone unchangeable - not changeable or subject to change; "a fixed and unchangeable part of the germ plasm"-Ashley Montagu; "the unchangeable seasons"; "one of the ." According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Koshal, the transplant committee asked the hospital's ethics board for guidance. The board said that while age alone should not be the determining factor, it also noted that the number of patients needing hearts far exceed the number of donor organs available. |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion