Providing Optimal Care With Dirty Hands

摘要

In their paper “Transplant Tourism in China: A Tale ofTwo Transplants,” Rosamond Rhodes and Thomas Schiano (2010) present two cases of patients seeking organs from China for their life-saving transplants. They claim that these organs are likely harvested fromexecutedChinese prisoners and that the for-profit nature of selling organs would “open [the judicial system] to corruption by providing perverse incentives to increase the number of executions.” Although the two cases appear to be similar, Rhodes and Schiano argue that Mount Sinai’s decisions to assist in one and not to assist in another were justified. I challenge the cogency of their reasoning.