ABSTRACT
For well over a decade, bioethicists have noted that the drastic shortage of organs for transplantation has rendered the procurement of organs a crucial issue.1 As Emmanuel orne notes, the recent “proposal by a prominent organ transplant center … to hasten the death of potential organ donors” clearly conveys the desperation of the situation.2 Moreover, as is widely acknowledged, the problem is not a shortage of potential organ donors but rather actual ones.3 e challenge facing policy makers in this area is to increase organ donation from potential donors without transgressing moral boundaries. Suggestions have been various and include altering the criteria for death to increase the pool of potential donors, changing donor policy from “opting in” to “opting out,” demoting autonomy from its place in bioethics as the principal moral value, xenotransplantation, tissue engineering, and creating a market in organs.4
