Deck 12: Just Distribution of Organs: God Committee and Personal Responsibility

Question 1

In regard to giving a patient is given a second heart transplant, it is true that:

A) Patients receiving second heart transplants live longer, on average, than first-time recipients.
B) It costs much less to give a patient a second heart transplant than to give the heart to a first-time recipient.
C) Re-transplanting the same patient is not an example of the Rule of Rescue.
D) Patients are often given a second or third transplant because the transplant teams feel that to let a transplant recipient die is to abandon him.
E) A national policy allowing re-transplantation of the same patient gets the most years of human life per organ transplanted.

Answer 1

Patients are often given a second or third transplant because the transplant teams feel that to let a transplant recipient die is to abandon him.

Question 2

Which of the following is a true statement?

A) Marissa Ayala was conceived to be a bone marrow donor, had her bone marrow harvested, and died as a result.
B) Belding Scribner invented a permanent, indwelling shunt for hemodialysis patients.
C) Shana Alexander does not think that Belding Scribner manipulated America and Congress to pay for dialysis machines.
D) The End State Renal Disease Act saved Americans money over the next decades because dialysis machines became cheaper as more were produced.
E) An African-American named Bruce Tucker got a heart transplant from a white man with head injuries.

Answer 2

Belding Scribner invented a permanent, indwelling shunt for hemodialysis patients.

Question 3

In selecting candidates for dialysis, the God Committee itself selected candidates for machines by using the selection standard of:

A) A lottery.
B) Social worth.
C) Strictly non-psychological, medical criteria.
D) Only psychological criteria.
E) Ability to pay.

Answer 3

Social worth.

Question 4

Which of the following is true in the Pittsburgh protocol for obtaining organs for transplantation?

A) The patient is declared dead by the Harvard criteria of brain death.
B) Drugs are administered that might accelerate the death of the patient from whom the organs are taken.
C) Most families understand that the organ-donor-patient's death will be managed to maximize the health of the organs to be transplanted.
D) Transplant surgeons don't have to wait a few minutes after the heart stops before declaring death of the patient.
E) It mandates doing everything possible for health of the patient from whom the organs are taken.

Question 5

A utilitarian would not manage the distribution of organs by:

A) When other patients needed an organ, giving no patient a second organ transplant of the same organ.
B) Giving preference to the sickest patients.
C) Requiring people who obtain organs to in turn declare themselves organ donors.
D) Assuming each organ saved a life, not giving one person four organs from one cadaver, but giving four people one organ.
E) Banning the rule of rescue and using impartial criteria for allocation of organs.