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Procreation for Donation: The Moral and Political Permissibility of “Having a Child to Save a Child”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2001

MARK P. AULISIO
Affiliation:
Clinical Ethics Program at MetroHealth Medical Center, Case Western Reserve University Center for Biomedical Ethics, Cleveland, Ohio
THOMAS MAY
Affiliation:
Graduate Program in Bioethics at the Center for the Study of Bioethics, the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
GEOFFREY D. BLOCK
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Abstract

The crisis in donor organ and tissue supply is one of the most difficult challenges for transplant today. New policy initiatives, such as the driver's license option and required request, have been implemented in many states, with other initiatives, such as mandated choice and presumed consent, proposed in the hopes of ameliorating this crisis. At the same time, traditional acquisition of organs from human cadavers has been augmented by living human donors, and nonheartbeating human donors, as well as experimental animal and artificial sources. Despite these efforts, the crisis persists and is perhaps most tragic when it threatens the lives of children, driving parents to sometimes desperate measures. Herein, we address one very controversial step some parents have taken to obtain matching tissue or organs for their needy children—that is, having a child, in part, for the purpose of organ or tissue procurement.

Type
SPECIAL SECTION: TRANSPLANTATION ETHICS: OLD QUESTIONS, NEW ANSWERS?
Copyright
© 2001 Cambridge University Press

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