Today's question (769): What is the ethical issue of organ distribution?

Organ is a scarce health resource, so it is impossible to distribute it as needed. Ethical issues in organ distribution mainly include the fairness of micro-distribution and macro-distribution.

2. Micro-distribution should grasp medical standards: should it be put in the first place, or should the ability to pay be put in the first place? At present, the standards in China basically depend on marketization. As long as you have the economic ability to pay, you may not fully consider the medical indications, which will aggravate the shortage of organ supply and waste organ resources.

Organ transplantation is a life-saving technology, not a money-making technology. Who is given priority? It is unfair to allocate the scarce resource of organs only according to the ability to pay, so that organ transplantation can only be enjoyed by the rich and exclude the poor. It is also for this reason that the international community opposes tourism transplantation (disguised sale). The government, society and medical institutions have the responsibility to make this technical service accessible to the poor.

4. In terms of reasonable procedures for organ distribution, some countries have established corresponding human organ transplant coordination institutions and organ distribution network systems, and donated organs are uniformly recognized nationwide (or divided by certain regions) according to the principles of application order, severity of illness, distance and so on. In China and many countries where there is no system, it is easy to lead to unfair, unjust and unreasonable distribution of corpse organs and low utilization rate.

5. The government should promote the establishment of national or regional organ transplant deployment centers or networks to maximize the benefits of organ utilization and prevent improper use and waste of organs; We should consider gradually establishing an effective, coordinated and reliable system for acquiring, storing and distributing transplanted organs, including all stakeholders, such as patients, family members, medical staff, organ acquisition and transplantation coordinators, hospitals, organ acquisition institutions and transplant centers where organ donors are located. This can avoid conflicts of interest as much as possible and ensure the fairness of organ distribution.