Cardiac transplants and the artificial heart: ethical considerations.
نویسنده
چکیده
THE ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS relevant to cardiac transplantation and the artificial heart have evolved with intensity since the first human tissue transplant nearly 40 years ago. Ethical issues raised have led to an ongoing debate that permeates our entire society. Recent implantation of an artificial heart in a human being has made these issues even more cogent. A brief historical perspective and some definitions may be useful. The ethical framework in which medical decisions relevant to cardiac transplantation and the artificial heart are made is evolving constantly. Typically, ethics help us make such decisions i.e., decisions occasioned by changing technology. Should we choose A (the old way), B (the new way), C (seek yet another way), or D (elect not to decide)? Ethics provide protection against special threats to moral life, such as partiality and tendentious consideration of oneself or one's group as being exempt from moral rules. Ethical issues develop generally in four stages: threshold, conflict, debate, and adaptation. In the first stage, conditions for moral conflict are present. Isolated individuals may anticipate problems that later be-
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عنوان ژورنال:
- Circulation
دوره 68 6 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 1983