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Dead donor rule: death, dysfunction and bodily respect

Removal of unpaired vital organs from a living donor need not involve the intention to kill. What people intend is an empirical question about individual psychology: on this, Lawrence Masek1 seems correct. It is possible for some people to intend organ harvesting which will in fact be lethal or mutilating without intending to harm or kill.

However, I have argued, with Helen Watt, that some human acts involve ‘unintended morally determinative aspects’ where intentions alone are morally inconclusive.2 Respect for bodily integrity requires more than abstention from deliberate killing or deliberate harm-causation. It is sufficient to exclude an act morally that there be an intention to accept or perform surgery with the foresight of lethal (or serious permanent) harm and no health-related good for the person harmed.

Masek suggests that strict adherence to the dead donor rule in relation to organ harvesting may also exclude other practices such…

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Posted in: Journal Article Abstracts on 04/02/2026 | Link to this post on IFP |
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