Faculty Bibliography

While mountains of articles have been written on the ethics of cloning human beings (hugely unlikely to happen anytime soon), the morality of using genetically engineered animals as sources of organs for transplants (ditto), and the moral defensibility of using treatments derived from embryonic stem-cell research to cure horrific diseases (a very long shot), hardly any literature exists on the ethics of current practices and policies in mental health. Scanning technologies far more powerful than the familiar CAT scan-tests like positron emission tomography, functional magnetic resonance imaging, multichannel electroencephalography, and near infrared spectroscopic imaging-already make it possible to "watch" neural activity in real time with impressive accuracy

The shortage of vital organs available for transplant continues to worsen in the USA, UK, Germany and many other nations. At the same time the demand for organs continues to grow year after year as the population ages and undergoes organ failure, morepeople with co-morbidity are admitted to transplant centres and the number of transplant centres and surgeons continues to increase. The shortage has led many to call for changes in the traditional ethical framework that has governed organ donation in the USA and the UK—voluntary altruism on the part of donors and the 'dead donor rule' in term s of eligibility for contributing a vital organ. As these proposals are considered it is important to keep in mind the fragile basis of public support for organ and tissue transplantation. It is also important not to compromise the available supply of organs in the hope of pursuing a new policy that engenders significant public mistrust that may translate into opposition to donation