Abstract

As the demand for organs begins to outstrip availability and waiting lists surge, the pressure to make morally questionable, unethical decisions becomes more likely and trust in transplant medicine starts to erode. The complex ethical web that constitutes this worldwide trade in organs and tissues is analysed by former health professional and medical ethics expert, Trevor Stammers. Key philosophical questions concerning existence, consciousness, and the right to life, connect organ donation and transplantation to real-life case studies including brain death in living patients, legal euthanasia, the creation of human-animal hybrids and organoids, alongside extreme examples of systematic murder driving under-regulated trade. Controversial cases from Japan, Germany, and Singapore are analysed alongside the Spanish, Welsh, and Brazilian experience of transplant opt-out schemes to highlight the variety of threats and challenges to public trust in transplant medicine. Charting these examples provides vital material for debates and discussions in the philosophy of medicine, and medical ethics more generally, with Stammers suggesting viable alternatives to current ethical failings by focusing on the moral arguments that define public trust, moving the debate on transplant ethics in vital new directions.