Personal responsibility and transplant revisited: A case for assigning lower priority to American vaccine refusers. (12th March 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Appel, Jacob M.
• Is Part Of: Bioethics. Volume 36:Number 4(2022)
• Page Start: 461
• Page End: 468
• Publication Date: 2022-03-12
• Subjects: organ transplant -- rationing/resource allocation; Bioethics -- Periodicals; 174.957
• DOI: 10.1111/bioe.13020
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0269-9702

Abstract

Abstract: Priority for solid organ transplant generally does not consider the underlying cause of the need for transplantation. This paper argues that a distinctive set of factors justify assigning lower priority to willfully unvaccinated individuals who require transplant as a result of suffering from COVID‐19. These factors include the personal responsibility of the patients for their own condition and the public outrage likely to ensue if willfully unvaccinated patients receive organs at the expense of vaccinated ones. The paper then proposes a three‐prong test for similar deviations from the current allocation standard that incorporates patient responsibility, foreseeability and avoidability, and the frequency of the occurrence.