Bending the rules that bent the rules

Camb Q Healthc Ethics. 1996 Spring;5(2):296-9.

Abstract

In an interview with the Medical Ethics Advisor about the controversy surrounding the use of non-heartbeating cadaver donors (NHBCDs), James Childress asks, "Are some current ethical boundaries moveable in this debate?" To save more lives and give more families the option of donation, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Protocol for NHBCDs has already moved ethical boundaries. The revisions in the Protocol, described by DeVita and Snyder in this issue of CQ, move them further still. While the University of Pittsburgh can be praised for developing a clear protocol and subjecting it to wide and open scrutiny, many of the arguments offered by DeVita and Snyder to justify specific changes in the protocol are not convincing.

MeSH terms

  • Cadaver*
  • Communication
  • Conflict of Interest
  • Death*
  • Ethical Theory
  • Ethics
  • Ethics Committees*
  • Ethics Committees, Clinical*
  • Evaluation Studies as Topic*
  • Family
  • Guidelines as Topic*
  • Health Personnel
  • Hospitals
  • Humans
  • Organizational Policy*
  • Pain
  • Pharmaceutical Preparations
  • Terminal Care
  • Third-Party Consent
  • Tissue Donors*
  • Tissue and Organ Procurement*

Substances

  • Pharmaceutical Preparations