by Karen K. Giuliano

About the author: Karen K. Giuliano is a registered nurse and a contributor to Nursing magazine.

Editor’s note: The following overview was originally intended for nurses and other medical personnel.

As organ transplantation becomes easier to do, the ethical questions become harder to answer.

When you care for patients who could benefit from a transplant, you’ll be drawn into conflicts that have no easy solutions. Here, we’ll explore some of the most nettlesome issues surrounding organ transplantation so you can help patients and their families make sound decisions.

As of January 1997, 50,288 people were on the national waiting list for a donor organ. Most of them will die waiting.

No Easy Answers

Because of spectacular medical advances, the successful transplantation of vital organs—notably the heart...