Scarce Goods: Justice, Fairness, and Organ Transplantation

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We call it lifeboat ethics: When there is not enough of this or that scarce good, who should die that others might survive Born in the 19th century, when shipwrecks were frequent and lifeboats scarce, it has become a 21st century dilemma. Who should get the last hospital bed, the scarce medical drug, the limited educational doctor, the needed transplantable human heart Tom Koch considers both lifeboat ethics and its modern application to the distribution of transplantable human organs in the United States. He shows that the scarcity of organs is exacerbated where not created by racial and regional inequalities inherent in the American health care and transplant system. The real question, he concludes, is not "who should die" when there is not enough to go around, but the reasons why scarcity pervades at all.

Reviews

"Dr. Koch's Scarce Goods rethinks the debate about the distribution of organs for transplantation. His use of maps to analyze what is happening today and to examine alternative strategies reshapes and advances our thinking."-Denis Wood Author The Power of Maps, Home Rules, Seeing Through Maps
"Tom Koch has written and impressive book. Important reading for anyone interested in issues of justice in healthcare, and especially organ transplantation."-Mark G. Kuczewski Associate Professor and Director Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy Loyola University, Chicago

Author Bio

TOM KOCH is a writer and bioethicist specializing in medical ethics. A frequent contributor to newspapers, magazines, and the CBC Radio, he is the author of 11 earlier books and scores of academic articles.