ABSTRACT
The American experience with organ donation and transplantation helps explicate the attitudes that underlie the unwillingness to establish national health insurance. To put the question into the framework of social obligations, what do we owe each other in terms of body parts? The beginning point for much of the literature on organ donation is the notable shortage of body parts. The surgical techniques required for successful transplants are well established and widely available. To contextualize the duty to supply body parts more broadly, authors examine the various policy options that have been proposed to reduce the shortage in organs. The court’s reliance on the best interest standard, not an easy one to satisfy, reflects a social consensus on the duty of intimates to take moderate risks for each other, even when they are minors and it is parents who are making the decision for them.
