Organ Transplantation Scandal

Reading material:
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/editorial/taiwan-issues/2011/09/02/315271/Discriminating-against.htm

Five unfortunate people just survived from the risky organ transplantation surgery but now they may face another unexpected challenge in their life, HIV infection. It is because that the organs they receipt came from an HIV-infected donor who die in an accident. This incident was a result of series of mistakes. The donor’s family had no idea about his illness; the transplant team of NTU hospital failed to follow the SOP. In fact, not only the five patients but also the members of transplant team had a high risk of HIV infection. The HIV expertises claimed that people should be kept tracking until May 2012 to determine if they were infected. I think it would be a great suffering to those people. This case may be the worst medical malpractice case in Taiwan’s recent history.

Let’s discuss some questions related to this issue!

1. In our society, the politicians tend to name a few scapegoats in this kind of scandal, especially near election time. Who do you think should take the responsibility to this event? (The coordinator, the leader of organ transplant team, Department of Health or the whole system?)

2. Imagine that if you were one of the patients who received the HIV positive organ, could you deal with the cruel truth and how will you react to it?

3. One of the patients plan to get married after the risky surgery. If you were this patient’s boyfriend/girlfriend, would you still get married with her/him?

4. Do you agree that the authorities should put a person’s HIV/AIDS status on their national health insurance card to prevent the same mistake happens again?

5.Have you considered donating your organ(s) or whole body after death for transplantation or research? Why?