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D Micah Hester

Publications and source records attributed to D Micah Hester.

10 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

Age and the allocation of organs for transplantation: a case study.

What role should age play in the allocation of organs for transplantation? Historically, older patients have not been listed as candidates for transplantation on the assumption that greater benefit could be obtained by favoring younger candidates, raising questions of equity and age discrimination. At the same time, organs offered for donation by the very old are frequently rejected because of concerns about length of viability. We examine a local case that challenges these practices: the liver from an elderly donor was successfully transplanted into an older patient. After exploring some of the potential problems with such a solution, we propose creating a second pool of organs from the very old for transplantation into older candidates, thus expanding the number of organs available, saving additional lives, and including the elderly more visibly in our transplant system.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2004

What must we mean by "community"? A processive account.

The term "community" in ethics and bioethics traditionally has been used to designate either a specific kind of moral relationship available to rational agents or, in contrast, the context in which any sense of rational agency can even be understood. I argue that bioethics is better served when both "selves" and "community" are expressed through a more processive language that highlights the functional character of such concepts. In particular, I see the turn to "processive" community in bioethics as a turn towards method, contextualization, and narrative. In clinical practice, such a processive account demands that bioethics concentrate on methods of developing healthy dialogue and deeper understanding from within the problematic situation rather than trying to "fix" problems using ethical tools developed from outside the present situation. "Community," I argue, is in and of the interactive processes of inquiry itself. Such inquiry, such "communitying," requires that we engage individual patients in context; it demands more than simply gaining their permission or mere consent; it demands developing a supportive environment for participation.

Bioethical Issues↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Is pragmatism well-suited to bioethics?

This paper attempts to defend pragmatic approaches to bioethics against detractors, showing how particular critics have failed or succeeded. The paper divides bioethics from a pragmatic point of view into three groups. The first group is called "bioethical pragmatism" that will be represented by two book-chapters from the anthology, Pragmatic Bioethics. The second group is called "clinical pragmatism" championed by Fins, Baccetta, and Miller. Finally, a third group, which has roots in the legal tradition, has been called "freestanding pragmatism" and is portrayed by Grey, Posner, and Wolf. Each group has been criticized in journal articles, and, in turn, this paper critiques some of the (mis)understandings put forth by Tollefsen, Jansen, and Arras about the capabilities and status of pragmatism in bioethical discussions. Finally, it concludes with cautionary notes about pragmatic bioethics in hopes that pragmatists will learn from their own insights about the human condition and the discipline of bioethics.

Bioethics↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Why we must leave our organs to others.

Organ procurement presents several ethical concerns (from what constitutes acceptable criteria for death to issues involved in specifically designating to whom an organ can be given), but none is more central than the concern for what are appropriate means for acquiring organs. The following discussion attempts a different perspective on the issue of organ procurement by arguing that, rather than appealing to our charitable consciences or our pocketbooks, relinquishing our organs after death in this day and age is, in fact, obligatory for most people. Each of us is pressed by the growing demand for our organs should we die "rightly," and that desperate need has risen to such a level that not to release our organs for transplantation would constitute a serious moral wrong.

Cadaver↗