Question

In a certain clinic, there are five patients in urgent needs of organ transplants. All five patients are middle age people, who are significant contributors to the society (we can assume that they are a well-known physicist, an important military officer, neuroscientist, a great politician, and a social reformer.) One day a new patient comes to this clinic, a middle age janitor, with very advanced brain cancer.

The janitor does not have a chances to recover from his brain cancer. He does not have any family, and he is a volunteer organ donor. His organs would save lives of the five other people. But the janitor wishes to live as long as he can. The doctor (who is the owner of this clinic) estimates that the janitor will live for another six months. Unfortunately, none of the five other men is able to wait for the organ transplant that long. If this situation is left to its natural order, all six people will be dead in six months.

By the virtue of his profession, the doctor is committed to saving human lives (and not to terminating human lives). By his rational judgement, the doctor thinks he should try to do what will bring the best possible outcome; it seems the right thing to do is to save as many (significant) people as possible.

Should he arrange an urgent surgery for the janitor, and conduct it in the way the janitor dies during the medical procedure (the doctor would be the only one who knows what really happened)? This way he can use the janitor’s organs to save the other five men?

Answer 1

The given situation is like trolley problem. There is a run way trolley barrelling down the railway tracks, A head on the tracks ,there are five people tied up and unable to move .The trolley is headed straight for them, you are standing some distance off in the train yard,next to lever, if you pull this lever ,the trolley will switch to different set of tracks , where you notice that there is one person on the trac ,who tied. Here we have two solutions one to let the trolley go in straight way and kill five persons or divert trolley and let to kill single person.

It was an ethical problem. Medical ethics is about balancing the autonomy, beneficence,non maleficence, and justice. According to Autonomy do the thing that harms but give relief to patient..Do work as it benefit to some one. Do justice for work. And avoiding of errors that cause harm is needed that is non maleficence ,and to do good , better to do harm for one if it has good intentions.

According to ethics of Non maleficence its better to arrange for surgery. Because here life's of five people are going to save by killing of only one. That to patient was voluntary organ donor ,and have ,incurable Brain cancer. So counsel the jainter about organ donation and it's need in the right situation ,and doing surgery and organ transplantation is Non maleficence.