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Scarce Goods Justice, Fairness, and Organ Transplantation
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Tom Koch
Book Code: C7432
ISBN: 0-275-97432-4
ISBN-13: 978-0-275-97432-9
272 pages, photos, tables
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 11/30/2001
List Price: $110.95 (UK Sterling Price: £65.00)
Availability: Out of stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Also Available: Paperback
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects: Reviews:
  • Examines the U.S. health care system's mechanisms for the distribution of scarce, transplantable human organs to medically needy patients from the perspective of fairness and social equality.
    —Journal of Economic Literature     June 2002
  • For those concerned about justice and fairness in the distribution of cadaveric organs for transplant, a new book by Tom Koch is a definite "must read".
    —Berkeley Organs Watch News     2002
  • Endorsement From Mark G. Kuczewski
    Associate Professor and Director
    Neiswanger Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy
    Loyola University, Chicago:     Tom Koch has written and impressive book. Important reading for anyone interested in issues of justice in healthcare, and especially organ transplantation.
  • Endorsement From Denis Wood
    Author
    The Power of Maps, Home Rules, Seeing Through Maps:     Dr. Koch's Scarce Goods rethinks the debate about the distribution of organs for transplantation. His use of maps to analyze what is happening today and to examine alternative strategies reshapes and advances our thinking.
Description: In 1841 the American sailing ship William Brown struck an iceberg. About half of the passengers and all of the crew were saved in two small, open boats. The next night, half of the passengers in the larger long-boat were thrown overboard because the boat was overfull. This was the first case of "lifeboat ethics," of hard choices in the face of scarcity. Since then the question has been "who should die so that others, equally needy, might live?" Both the case of the William Brown and the ethics it spawned have been used in recent years to describe the problem of health care rationing generally, and organ transplantation specifically. Koch reexamines and reinterpretes the paradigm case of lifeboat ethics, the story of the William Brown, not as an unavoidable tragedy, but as an avoidable series of errors. Its relation to more general issues of distributive justice are then considered. The lessons learned from both the historical review and its application to distributive principles are then applied to the problem of graft organ distribution in the United States. Through the use of maps, the problem of organ distribution is considered at a range of scales, from the international to the urban. The contextual issues become more evident as one moves from international to hemispheric, fron national to regional, and then local systems. Finally, Koch reviews the lessons in light of other problems of distribution in the face of scarcity. The central lesson-that scarcity is exacerbated where it is not in fact created by our distributive programs-is explored thoroughly. The result is "no good choices" for anyone and the continuation of the scarcity that for most seems inevitable, but, from the evidence provided, is itself an outcome of inequalities of distribution at different scales of society. Of particular interest to students, scholars, and policymakers involved with issues of planning and health care economics, medical geography, and concepts of justice.
Table of Contents:
  • Preface
  • Lifeboat Ethics and the case of the William Brown
  • The Scales of Justice: Principles and Practice
  • Scarce Goods: The Contexts of Solid Organ Transplantation
  • The Scales of Justice: Theories and Realities
  • Disappearing States: The Scale of the Nation
  • Distant Communities: The Problem of Supply
  • The Lifeboat's Choice
  • Justice in Ethic's Lifeboat
  • Afterword
  • Bibliography
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