ABSTRACT
The ethical issues that surround organ transplantation are protean. As the xenograft performed on Baby Fae illustrates, the main question enveloping any form of transplantation, in its early stages, is how realistic the expected therapeutic benefit must be before a patient is subjected to an experimental procedure. The determination of a policy for organ acquisition is largely a function of a society's underlying social and political philosophy, and different philosophies assign different degrees of importance to the value of individual freedom. A number of arguments have been taken to provide a "philosophical and humanistic" basis for an organ procurement policy based on consent. A less dramatic but more pervasive illustration of this moral labelling is the frequent characterization of an organ donation as a gift. To call it a gift emphasizes that it must be freely given from a motive of genuine self-sacrifice and altruism.
