Ethical Decision: Donating a Loved Ones Remains

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorCollege, Undergraduate February 2008

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A very difficult ethical decision I had to make in the past was whether or not to donate my sisters? organs after she was involved in a car accident. My mother was too distraught to make that type of decision so it was up to me.

The factors I had to consider was if I want them cutting up her body and taking everything from her and how it would make my family feel later on. I thought about the effects it might have on me in the long run with the sole decision on me. I tried to think of how Amanda would have wanted it to be and what decisions she would have made if given the opportunity.

I think the values that made the decision easier were that through out Amanda?s life she tried to help other people. I believe she would have wanted to help others to live with the help of her organs.

We had also talked about when she received her drivers? license becoming an organ donor so it made it a little easier.

Amanda?s? friends and my family were impacted the most by my decision. Some had mixed feelings in the beginning about what I had done. Eventually they saw that it helped other people and that is what she would have wanted.

A couple weeks after the accident a woman from our town called and thanked my mother for letting Amanda?s? organs be donated because her 13 year old son had been on the list for a lung transplant and he and Amanda were a perfect match. I have since then become an organ donor because I do not want to have to put that responsibility on anyone else.