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| Who Gets the Heart? / Кому достанется сердце? |
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| Read
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You are members of the heart transplant surgery team at a university hospital in Washington, D.C. At the moment, you have seven patients who desperately need a transplant if they are to have any chance of living. All seven patients are classified as “critically ill,” and could die at any time.
You have just received news that the heart of a 16-year-old boy who was killed in an auto accident has become available for transplantation. Speed is extremely important as you decide which of the following patients is to receive the heart: not only might one of the patients die, but the donor heart will soon begin to deteriorate.
Consider
1. The age and sex of the donor has no relationship to the age and sex of the recipient. In other words, the heart of the 16-year-old would work well in a 50-year-old woman. Size, however, might be a consideration in the case of the infant.
2. Rank the option/patients in order of preference: 1 = first to receive, 8 = last to receive.
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| Decide and Write
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Patient 1. Amegneza Edorh, female, age 57. Mrs. Edorh, a renowned poet and novelist from Nigeria, received the 1987 Nobel Prize for literature. An inspiration throughout the developing world because of her anti-colonialist writings, Mrs. Edorh has been confined to bed for the past five months with steadily deteriorating health. (Married: four children between the ages of 30 and 37)
Reasons she should receive the heart:
______________________________
Reasons she should not receive the heart:
______________________________
Ranking of heart transplant team:
______________________________
Patient 2. Soohan Kim, male, age 12. Soohan, a junior high school student from South Korea, was bom with a congenital heart defect. Doctors wanted to wait until he was a teenager to replace his heart, but his condition has worsened dramatically. He is being kept alive on a heart-lung machine.
Reasons he should receive the heart:
______________________________
Reasons he should not receive the heart:
______________________________
Ranking of heart transplant team:
______________________________
Patient 3. Alicia Fagan, female, age 27. Ms. Fagan’s heart problems, though recent, seem to have a genetic basis inasmuch as her twin sister (patient 4) is similarly affected. Although Ms. Fagan is a promising Ph.D. student in biochemistry at Georgetown University, her failing heart and kidneys have caused her to drop out of school temporarily. (Unmarried)
Reasons she should receive the heart:
______________________________
Reasons she should not receive the heart:
______________________________
Ranking of heart transplant team:
______________________________
Patient 4. Galia Feinstein, female, age 27. Mrs. Feinstein is Ms. Fagan’s twin sister. Mrs. Feinstein, who holds a Master’s degree from Harvard University in computer science, currently operates a computer business with her husband. (One daughter, age 4.) Mrs. Feinstein’s condition differs from that of her sister in that her kidneys have not been affected.
Reasons she should receive the heart:
______________________________
Reasons she should not receive the heart:
______________________________
Ranking of heart transplant team:
______________________________
Patient 5. Leonid Gromykovitch, male, age 34. Mr. Gromykovitch works for the U.S. government as a researcher for the Central Intelligence Agency. Born in the Soviet Union, Mr. Gromykovitch is considered the Agency’s foremost Kremlinologist (Soviet expert). Like patient 2, Mr. Gromykovitch is being kept alive on a heart-lung machine. Unmarried (his wife died in an automobile accident), he has three children (ages 6, 3, 2).
Reasons he should receive the heart:
______________________________
Reasons he should not receive the heart:
______________________________
Ranking of heart transplant team:
______________________________
Patient 6. Martha Rosales, female, age 23. Mrs. Rosales’ heart problems originated from a bout she had with scarlet fever while growing up in the slums of New York. Unemployed and on welfare, Mrs. Rosales raised money for her operation through the contributions of those in her neighborhood. Never married, she has four children (ages 8, 6, 5, 1).
Reasons she should receive the heart:
______________________________
Reasons she should not receive the heart:
______________________________
Ranking of heart transplant team:
______________________________
Patient 7. Peter Jacobsen, male, age 42. Mr. Jacobsen's family has a history of heart disease (his father died from a heart attack at age 39). Considered the leading scientist in the world in the area of bacteriological diseases, Mr. Jacobsen has already had one heart transplant operation. Since his body rejected that heart (three weeks ago), Mr. Jacobsen has been kept alive by an artificial heart. (Never married, no children)
Reasons he should receive the heart:
______________________________
Reasons he should not receive the heart:
______________________________
Ranking of heart transplant team:
______________________________
8. None of the above. Save the heart for someone else.
Ranking of heart transplant team:
______________________________
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| Extend
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1. Do you think that only doctors should decide who receives transplants? Are there any other people who should help make such decisions?
2. What do you think about cross-species transplants—such as putting a baboon heart in a person?
3. How do you think you would feel if you received the heart of another person? How would it feel to have another person’s heart in your chest?
4. When you die would you be willing to donate your organs to a person who needs them? Explain.
5. When do you think a person is dead and therefore capable of giving his organs to another: when his brain has no more activity, or when his heart stops beating?
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