Editing Organ donation (section)

===Deontological===
[[File:Lung transplant rejection - high mag.jpg|thumb|Lung transplant rejection]]
Deontological issues are issues about whether a person has an ethical duty or responsibility to take an action. Nearly all scholars and societies around the world agree that voluntarily donating organs to sick people is ethically permissible. Although nearly all scholars encourage organ donation, fewer scholars believe that all people are ethically required to donate their organs after death. Similarly, nearly all religions support voluntary organ donation as a charitable act of great benefit to the community. Certain small faiths such as [[Jehovah's Witnesses]] and [[Shinto]] are opposed to organ donation based upon religious teachings; for Jehovah's Witnesses, this opposition is absolute whereas there exists increasing flexibility among Shinto scholars. [[Romani people]] are also often opposed to organ donation based on prevailing spiritual beliefs and not religious views per se.<ref name=easterbrookbeliefnet>{{cite web | url=http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/2001/05/Organ-Donation-Where-Your-Religion-Stands.aspx?p=1 | work=[[BeliefNet]] |access-date=March 9, 2014 | title=Organ Donation: Where Your Religion Stands | last=Easterbrook | first=Gregg | url-status=live | archive-date=November 10, 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110233120/http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/2001/05/Organ-Donation-Where-Your-Religion-Stands.aspx?p=1 | quote=Despite popular misconceptions, there are almost no religious rules against donating organs or receiving transplants. A few denominations ban these practices, and a few others have rules that are not models of clarity.}} ''This is the first of two pages.''</ref> Issues surrounding [[patient autonomy]], [[living will]]s, and [[guardianship]] make it nearly impossible for involuntary organ donation to occur.

From the standpoint of [[deontological ethics]], the primary issues surrounding the morality of organ donation are semantic in nature. The debate over the definitions of life, death, human, and [[Human body|body]] is ongoing. For example, whether or not a [[brain-dead]] patient ought to be kept artificially animate to preserve organs for donation is an ongoing problem in clinical [[bioethics]]. In addition, some{{who|date=September 2021}} have argued that organ donation constitutes an act of self-harm, even when an organ is donated willingly.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kishore |first1=R R |title=Human organs, scarcities, and sale: morality revisited |journal=Journal of Medical Ethics |date=June 2005 |volume=31 |issue=6 |pages=362–365 |doi=10.1136/jme.2004.009621 |pmid=15923488 |pmc=1734170 }}</ref>

Further, the use of [[cloning]] to produce organs with a [[genotype]] identical to the recipient is a controversial topic, especially considering the possibility for an entire person to be brought into being for the express purpose of being destroyed for organ procurement. While the benefit of such a cloned organ would be a zero-percent chance of [[transplant rejection]], the ethical issues involved with creating and killing a clone may outweigh these benefits. However, it may be possible in the future to use cloned stem-cells to grow a new organ without creating a new human being.

A relatively new field of transplantation has reinvigorated the debate. [[Xenotransplantation]], or the transfer of animal (usually pig) organs into human bodies, promises to eliminate many of the ethical issues, while creating many of its own.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Organ Donation (Opposing Viewpoints)|publisher=Greenhaven Press|year=2013|isbn=9780737763324|editor-last=Egendorf|editor-first=Laura|location=Detroit|pages=[https://archive.org/details/organdonation0000unse/page/130 130–147]|url=https://archive.org/details/organdonation0000unse/page/130}}</ref> While xenotransplantation promises to increase the supply of organs considerably, the threat of organ transplant rejection and the risk of [[xenozoonosis]], coupled with general [[anathema]] to the idea, decreases the functionality of the technique. Some animal rights groups oppose the sacrifice of an animal for organ donation and have launched campaigns to ban them.<ref>Institute of Medicine (US); Committee on Xenograft Transplantation: Ethical Issues and Public Policy. {{Cite book |author1= Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Xenograft Transplantation: Ethical Issues and Public Policy|url=https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/5365/xenotransplantation-science-ethics-and-public-policy |title=Xenotransplantation: Science, Ethics, and Public Policy |date=July 12, 1996 |publisher=National Academies Press |isbn=978-0-309-05549-9 |location=Washington, D.C. |doi=10.17226/5365 |pmid=20845555}}{{page needed|date=February 2024}}</ref>