Understanding Organ Stewardship

Area of Science:

• Bioethics
• Transplant Ethics
• Medical Sociology

Background:

• Organ stewardship is complex, involving trust-based relationships.
• Existing models struggle to address conflicts among transplant stakeholders.
• The duties conferred by different forms of stewardship are not clearly defined.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a bipartite model of organ stewardship.
• To differentiate between resource and gift stewardship.
• To apply this model to resolve ethical conflicts in organ donation and transplantation.

Main Methods:

• Conceptual analysis of stewardship models.
• Application of the bipartite model to a case of conditional organ donation.
• Ethical reasoning to resolve the debate on organ transplant recipient stewardship.

Main Results:

• Organ stewardship is best understood as bipartite: resource stewardship and gift stewardship.
• Conditional organ donation cases reveal tensions between resource and gift stewardship.
• Transplant recipients can be gift stewards, but not resource stewards.

Conclusions:

• The bipartite model clarifies moral conflicts in organ transplantation.
• Transplant recipients do not owe duties as resource stewards to the transplant team.
• This model provides a framework for understanding and resolving ethical dilemmas in organ donation.