The Ethics of Organ Transplantation: Volume 7

It was on a dreary night in November that I beheld the accomplishment of my toils. With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet … by the glimmer of the half-extinguished light I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and convulsive motion agitated its limbs (Shelley, 1969).1

Currently, medical ethics may place tighter restrictions on the procedures involved in fetal organ and tissue transplantation than does the legal system. Although it may be legal to do certain procedures, and, recently, technically possible to do certain procedures, careful attention must be devoted to ethical considerations in the field of fetal organ/tissue transplantation. Simply because there are no legal or technical barriers to doing some of these procedures does not necessarily mean that performance of these procedures is morally correct.