The news have been reporting about a one of a kind ethical dilemma. Ethical dilemma begins with what is known as two situations in which there is a choice to be made between two options, neither one of which works out the situation in an ethically acceptable fashion. The following will consist of an ethical dilemma involving Sarah Murnaghan who is fighting for her life. Sarah Murnaghan Sarah Murnaghan is a ten year old girl who suffers from end-stage cystic fibrosis at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The Doctors from the hospital declare that a lung transplant is the only chance of survival.
Rules prevent children of the age of Sarah from getting lungs from adults. Due to the fact of longstanding transplant policy, Sarah is only authorized for lungs from a child donor, although adult lungs which are far more available. Her parents choose to fight against this rule and plan to change it. Kathleen Sebelius from Health and Human Services stated the following, “First of all, as a grandmother and a mother, I just can’t imagine anything more heart breaking than what the Murnaghans are going through with their daughter”.
More than a few lawmakers from Pennsylvania united with the family in petitioning Sebelius to make an exception for Sarah. The policy is imperfect and many citizens believe it should be changed, not just for Sarah but for every child in this specific situation in which a life can be saved. Although there are many reasons that support the policy for which it stands. For example, lungs are very different from other organs of the human body, that it is based on the survivability.It undergoes a very delicate process in which it all determines how well the lung will react and adapt to the living body.
Although everyone believes Sarah’s case is different. The doctors from The Children’s Hospital in Pennsylvania argue that Sarah can survive with an adult lung. It is the only way to save her life and are confident they can perform a successful transplant. Fact of the matter this is not a situation where they are saying save me or do not save me, they are saying save me as regardless of any opposition. That is the toughest ethical problem.The parents of Sarah did not give up and continued to campaign and fight the policy.
Finally they made a successful temporarily national policy containing organ transplant change. The change allowed Sarah to receive her two double lung transplant successfully with no rejection of her new lungs. On the other hand Sarah will need mechanical assistance until her diaphragm receives its strength again. The Doctors say that her lungs have turned out great and now it is all about rehabilitation of her muscles.Great news for the whole world because Sarah was in coma and essentially paralyzed for more than three weeks. It is still far from relearning many things such as how to walk.
Sarah attends physical therapy. The estimated recovery for Sarah is from ten months to one year. On one of the interviews Sarah was asked if she considered herself a tough girl and she replied the following” Yes, very. ” “Because every time I faced things that I thought were going to be hard, then I’ve done them.
”She also stated the following “I’m not going for easy, I’m just going for possible… And what’s in front of me right now is possible. ” The parents of Sarah see their daughter as an inspirational hero and are excited to see her live a normal life. Conclusion The story of Sarah Murnaghan was a great ethical dilemma example. In her case we noticed the nature of the dilemma, the ethical decision made, alternative courses of action and the outcome of the situation.
Overall, Sarah was in a life or death situation and her only way of surviving was receiving a lung transplant.Although there was a policy of her age that did not allow for an adult lung transplant. The law stated that Sarah could not receive an adult lung transplant due to her age. Although the ethical choice is to save her life and make the transplant regardless of any given situation because that is the only way to keep Sarah alive. Understanding how to come to a moral decision and ethical dilemmas is difficult mainly when every option violates the societal and ethical standards by which we have learned to govern our lives.
