Live kidney donations and the ethic of care.
In this paper, we seek to re-conceptualize the ethical framework through which ethicists and medical professionals view the practice of live kidney donations. The ethics of organ donation has been understood primarily within the framework of individual rights and impartiality, but we show that the ethic of care captures the moral situation of live kidney donations in a more coherent and comprehensive way, and offers guidance for practitioners that is more attentive to the actual moral transactions among donors and recipients. A final section offers guidelines for the practice of live kidney transplants that emerge from an ethic of care.
Kane
Francis
F
Philosophy Department, Salisbury University, Salisbury, MD 21801, USA. fikane@salisbury.edu
Clement
Grace
G
Kane
Mary
M
D004992:Ethics, Medical; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019520:Living Donors / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008396:Maryland