Transplant ethicist guards organ donors’ rights

March 23, 2009

As a transplant ethicist, Katrina Bramstedt deals in hearts, kidneys, livers, lungs, pancreases and lengths of intestine. But mostly what she deals in is motivation. For recipients, it is obvious: They get the organ or they die. For deceased donors, it comes down to the consent of survivors or a sticker on a driver’s license. Stickier than that is the third category: living donors willing to endure surgery and risk complications of their own in order to help a sick relative or even a stranger. (San Francisco Chronicle)