Gordon:
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Before we address some of the challenges in
living donor organ donations , it is important to mention
that you earned your J.D, in Health and FDA Law at
Georgetown Law School and a PhD in Bioethics from
Georgetown. You are a member of the DC Bar, a member of
American Society For Bioethics and Humanities, a member of
American Society of Medicine and Ethics, a member (medical
ethicist) of the Organ and Tissue Advisory Committee for
the Washington Regional Transplant
Community.
You serve as Co-Founder of
American Living Organ Donor Fund,
President of Stop Organ Trafficking Now, and President
of
The Center for Ethical Solution
What initially interested you in the
challenges of organ transplantation? |
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Sigrid:
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While I was a graduate student in bioethics,
my mentor Robert Veatch was testifying before Congress to
ban the sale of organs, so all of us were discussing the
relevant issues. Then just 4 years after the National Organ
Transplant Act was passed my son had kidney cancer and ever
since I’ve worked in one form or another on solving the
organ shortage. |
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| Gordon: |
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What are some of the differences between the
donation of living and deceased organs? |
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| Sigrid: |
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The big ethical issue is that once a person
is dead, you can’t hurt them. All living organ donation is
inherently risky for the donor. If we could solve our organ
shortage with just organs from the recently deceased no one
would be talking about living organ donation at all. |
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| Gordon: |
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What research is being done on the use of
organ donations with hepatitis c and HIV ?
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| Sigrid: |
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I don’t know about what research is being
done. I know UNOS just approved the use of organs from
people with HIV and Hep C for transplantation into people
who have Hep C and HIV |
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| Gordon: |
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You have detailed the ethical challenges of transplants in
Iran in your book
The Kidney Sellers; A Journey of Discovery in
Iran |
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Sigrid:
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Actually my book tells my story of how I ended up going to Iran
and the people I met there – including the living organ
donors I met. It is amazing, the reasons why people
donate for money. As you would expect, they donate
because they are poor, in debt, and out of work, but some
donate because they want to start a business, pay for
expensive medical treatment abroad for a loved one, build an
addition on their house, send a child to college. The
problem is payment in and of itself is problematic because
it makes those who donate look bad. It gives the
impression, at least this is what donors in Iran told me,
that the donor is desperate and can’t hold down a job or
take adequate care of his family. We want donors to be
looked at as heroes and I don’t think paying donors and
thinking of them as heroes are compatible social constructs.
Paying donors expenses is fine, and taking care of donors if
they have complications – but paying them to entice them to
donate is somehow unseemly – gives the impression the person
is desperate for money, and diminishes how the general
public sees the act of donation. Potentially, in a rich
country like the U.S., paying donors could even backfire,
and cause the number of donations to go down – because those
who would donate for altruistic reasons don’t want people to
think they donated for money. |
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Here is one important correction.
At the end of this section: Before
we address some of the challenges in living donor organ
donations , it is important to mention that you earned
your J.D, in Health and FDA Law at Georgetown Law School
and a PhD in Bioethics from Georgetown. You are a
member of the DC Bar, a member of American Society
For Bioethics and Humanities, a member of American
Society of Medicine and Ethics, a member (medical
ethicist) of the Organ and Tissue Advisory Committee.
we need to add "for the Washington Regional Transplant
Community"
Just "Organ and Tissue Advisory Committee alone doesn't
mean anything -- it needs to state with which
organization -- namely I'm on the Organ and Tissue
Advisory Committee at the Washington Regional Transplant
Community.
