PHIL 213 Study Guide - Quiz Guide: Local Exchange Trading System, Organ Transplantation, Lifesaving
Document Summary
On september 16, 1993, 5 year old laura davis received small and large intestines, stomach, pancreas, liver, and two kidneys. It was a fifteen hour procedure and cost 11 million pounds. Although it was an expensive and highly intensive procedure, private donors were generous enough to pay the amount. It was better than 50-50 chance, but laura died on november 11. In this case, a standard objection to high expense-per-benefit care does not apply: funded privately by response to special appeal, laura"s care does not come at the expense of anyone else whom limited funds might have saved. But a greater problem arises from this aggressive procedure: In attempt to save her life, a greater number of other lives were sacrificed. It"s a straightforward function of the marked scarcity of organs. One might justify this by saying that carrying out more challenging operations will eventually develop new, effective forms of lifesaving.
