Question

Scenario #4 Colin Benton, a British citizen, died in the summer of the 1988 of renal disease after a kidney transplant failed. Benton?s widow later revealed that the donor kidney has been obtained from a Turkish citizen who traveled to London for the surgery. The kidney donor was paid the equivalent of around $4400. When asked why he had sold the organ, the man explained that he needed the money to pay for medical treatment for his daughter. It was this case that led the British Parliament to outlaw organ sales. Would it be morally correct to permit people to purchase the donation of kidneys, eyes, liver tissue and bone marrow from living donors? How would someone respond to this question using the ethical principles of Kantian?

Answer 1

Immanuel Kant who was a german philosopher proposed the principles of kantian ethics which follow utilitarianism. According to Kant, any action depends on the purpose or goal and not on the outcomes. If any act respect the welfare of human, it could be performed. An act is considered to be good based on the goal or motivation of the person performing that act. Kantian ethics is based on morality and categorical imperatives which suggests that any action performed by people must follow moral values and no body can deny from performing those acts. Organ donation is an act which has a good will of the donor. In this scenario, donor wants to donate the organ for the welfare of his daughter and as a part of helping another person (receiver) and thus, it provides benefits to both the donor and receiver. In this situation, moral values are involved and consequences of the act does not have any role so people could purchase any donated organs.