Exploring the Ethics of Selling Organs
Mark Nelson, Kenneth and Peggy Monroe professor of philosophy, explores the thorny ethical issues surrounding the idea of offering money for human organs in a free lecture, 鈥淭he Morality of Organ Trafficking,鈥 Thursday, April 8, at 5:30 p.m. at the University Club, 1332 Santa Barbara Street. The free, public lecture is part of 黑料百科 Downtown: Conversations About Things That Matter.
Nelson, who began teaching at 黑料百科 in 2006, says there is a shortage of kidneys for transplant all over the word. In the U.S. alone, more than 80,000 people are waiting for suitable organs, but last year only 16,000 got transplants.
鈥淭he others will have to endure lengthy and unpleasant dialysis treatments or die before an organ becomes available,鈥 Nelson says. 鈥淕iven this chronic shortage, some doctors and health economists have proposed offering financial incentives to potential donors to increase the supply of transplantable organs.鈥
He says he will probe the ethical issues of justice, beneficence and commodification that surround the idea of offering money for organs.
Before coming to 黑料百科, Nelson spent 12 years teaching at the University of Leeds, one of the largest universities in the United Kingdom. He earned his master鈥檚 degree and doctorate at the University of Notre Dame. He earned his bachelor鈥檚 degree from Wheaton College in Illinois. Before teaching at Leeds, he was associate professor of philosophy at Hampden-Sydney College and a visiting lecturer at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
His areas of specialization include ethics/moral philosophy, epistemology, and philosophy of religion. Nelson co-edited the book 鈥淐hristian Theism and Moral Philosophy鈥 and has had three dozen articles included in various publications.