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Donation by default?: Examining feminist reservations about opt-out organ procurement
- IJFAB: International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics
- Indiana University Press
- Volume 3, Number 1, Spring 2010
- pp. 23-42
- Article
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There is reason to believe that procuring organs from recently dead people who did not explicitly refuse to provide them—here referred to as "opt-out" arrangements—would ease growing shortages, thus extending the lives of many who otherwise would die soon. There is also a simple, apparently powerful argument—the "easy rescue requirement"—for believing that many people have strong moral reason to provide such life-extending support to others, thus bolstering the case for implementing opt-out systems. Here I consider two broad types of feminist reservations about opt-out arrangements, one concerning the motivating argument, the other concerning ways in which opt-out practices might disproportionately burden women. I conclude that both reservations can be answered sufficiently so as to encourage further feminist reflection on opt-out proposals and easy rescue arguments.