Ethics, justice and the sale of kidneys for transplantation purposes
Abstract
Living kidney donor transplantations are complex; add to that financial compensation
to the donor and one enters an ethical maze. Debates on whether the buying and
selling of kidneys should be allowed are mainly between utilitarians, deontologists
and virtue ethicists as legal transplants are more common in the Western world. The
pros and cons of each theory in relation to the sale of human organs are analysed,
after which the foundational principles for all bio-ethical judgments; beneficence,
non-maleficence, autonomy and justice are also scrutinised in seeking to justify the
sale of human kidneys for transplantation purposes in a country with a human rights
culture.