19th Annual Student Research Conference
Social Science
Toward a Balance of Partiality and Impartiality in Organ Replacement Allocation
James G. Quigley
Dr. Gerald Osborn, Faculty Mentor
In this paper, I distinguish between various types of theory about how scarce resources replacing failing organs ought to be allocated, and highlight the implications of what I introduce as the partialist-discriminist view. This view aims at a maximization of care, love, or interpersonal support rather than mere promise of the perpetuity of health. It is advanced as an improvement on egalitarian and impartialist views because it better reflects the complexity and diversity of candidates’ situations, in consideration of which more of those who really deserve organ replacements will generally receive them. While it is mostly a correction of the reasons impartialist systems give for choosing whom they do, partialist-discriminism’s choices of patients will differ in certain respects, which I highlight. I conclude by offering suggestions on how to avoid ambiguity, and on what issues more thinking could be done in application of this view to ensure fairness.
Keywords: organ transplant, organ replacement, triage, ethics of care, partial, allocation, discriminism, dialysis
Topic(s):Philosophy & Religion
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 43-2
Location: VH 1412
Time: 1:30