Abstract

The most common and public mode of addressing procurement of organs has traditionally taken one of two lines. The most widely accepted approach to raising the procurement rate has been an appeal to charity. The other has been one of commodification—an economic appeal or market-based mode. Each side in this debate has put forth strong reasons why the other fails as an acceptable strategy to procure organs, but ultimately, neither puts forth sufficient support for its own position. This chapter argues that the call to relinquishing organs upon our deaths can easily be understood as an “ordinary” obligation and may be even more pointedly seen as a moral obligation. As such, not to release our organs for transplantation constitutes a serious moral wrong.