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by dtgriscom 546 days ago
The ethics of organ distribution is complex, and I wouldn't want to be on the committee deciding who is worthy and who is not.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_organ_transplantatio...

https://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/professionals/by-topic/ethi...

1 comments

The ethics of organ distribution usually do not look into the worthiness of the person needing the organ, but rather the effectiveness of the procedure. If the medical intervention is unlikely to be effective, the limited medical resources is better to be allocated elsewhere. Behavior and access to social support can be part of the assessment of how effective the procedure will be, but it doesn't weight the social worthiness of the patient.

This principle is similar to why palliative care is different from medical care. At some point the effectiveness of health care is so low that it mostly do more harm or drain resources better allocated to other patients. It is not that elderly people are not worthy of health care, and the ethical considerations focus on making sure its not a value based judgement about who should live and who shouldn't.