BIOETHICS, LAW AND AGING - LEGAL AND ETHICAL CHALLENGES OF AGING AND ORGAN TRANSPLANTATION
BIOETHICS, LAW AND AGING - LEGAL AND ETHICAL CHALLENGES OF AGING AND ORGAN TRANSPLANTATION

Author(s): Tomislav Nedić
Subject(s): International Law, Ethics / Practical Philosophy, Health and medicine and law, Demography and human biology, Gerontology, EU-Legislation
Published by: Sveučilište Josipa Jurja Strossmayera u Osijeku, Ekonomski fakultet u Osijeku
Keywords: bioethics; law; ethics; challenges;
Summary/Abstract: The issue of organ donation and transplantation is, in the first place, an issue of medical excellence of transplantation teams, but also a controversial issue with doubtful bioethical, legal, cultural, religious, and other questions. Since medical research are improving constantly, research in the field of organ transplantation is setting new interesting (bio) ethical and legal questions. According to the last population census, there are approximately one million inhabitants in the Republic of Croatia who are older than 60 years and who are also more likely to be on the organ transplantation candidate’s list than the younger inhabitants, because of the various health problems of the aging process. Also, according to research, the median age of 150 patients on chronic dialysis at the Clinical Hospital Centre Osijek is 65.5 years. Since bioethics is a scientific discipline that studies all issues related to life itself, organ transplantation and aging are some of the crucial fields of the human aspect of bioethics. By connecting these two issues, this chapter aims to expound the main (bio)ethical and legal problems of organ donation and transplantation and put them into the context of the issue of aging in the Republic of Croatia. The main questions that may arise are what the main problems of older people are when it comes to organ donation and transplantation, whether they are aware of them and if there is any kind of age discrimination in the process of organ allocation. The author will try to point out these and other bioethical questions when it comes to aging and organ donation and transplantation, and also set a new scheme of awareness in relation to this issue.

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