social, financial and ethical implications of treating kidney disease by transplant rather than dialysis?

Question

ive been asked this question as part of my physiology assignment, its gotta be done without goin over 500 words- HELP!!!

Answer 1

Transplant and dialysis are both forms of treatment, neither is a cure. From society's point of view transplant is cheaper. But should money be the determining factor? If a person had a transplant but lost it due to not taking their medications properly should that person have the chance to get another kidney?

Ethically all major religions support kidney transplantation - but many ethical issues arise when you consider living donation - what if you donate a kidney to a sibling only to have your child need a kidney later in life?

What about the health risks a living donor accepts when donating a kidney. These risks are small but still they must be weighed. How would accepting a kidney from a loved one change the relationship between the donor and the recepient? What if the kidney doesn't work - through no ones fault - but still how will the crushed expectations effect the relationship?

WIth non-living donors there are a number of ethical questions around who should receive the kidney - the person who has waited the longest or the person who is youngest or otherwise healthiest and could most likely use the kidney for the longest period of time?

Answer 2

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Answer 3

1. Social: who gets the kidney according to social and demographic criteria, including age, gender, ethnic group, economic strata, etc?
2. Financial: how does yearly income and net worth affect who gets a kidney? What is the cost of the procedure as compared to the cost of dialysis in time as well as money? How does either affect productivity?
3. Ethics: should HIV positive people get transplanted? How about alcoholics or drug abusers? What are the ethical dimensions of the social and financial implications already listed?

I hope this helps you to frame the question. Now dig for some numbers in the literature and put together an essay.

Answer 4

Theres no indication of where you are based.. but lets assume as you are on the UK answers board you are looking for a UK centic answer

the NHS theoretically treats patients in need with the most appropriate treatement. Howwever for what ever reasons effectively the NHS rations out treatements to preferred groups. In some cases those preferences are set by medical grounds, sometimes its geographical grounds (ie that treatement isnt available locally, they have already cokpleted this years allcoation of that treatment), or by financial grounds... we dont have enough cash for your treatment but we can afford to do 'y's treatement

lets face it the costs work 3 ways
theres the cost to the NHS faciltiy doing the treatrment
theres the cost to the individual, their family and their employers or not doing the treatment.
theres the cost to the country of that person not being so economically active thus depriving grapsing Gordon of thier taxes.

the cost to the family may be hard to quantify as it is almost certainly largely non financial.. how do you value someones life to their spouse, children, grand children etc.....

There are often good reasons for dialysis (eg no suitable match... why? could be not enough effort put in to recruit new donors, or it could be just plain and simple no match), in these cases Dialysis is a holding treatement until a suitable match can be found. in these cases there is no significant cost differential... after all only one treatement is available so no decisions can be made... unless you consoider how you might increases the availaibility of suitable transplant material (better advertisign, better approaches to relatives who may have a viable Kidney or better approach to realtives of potentuial dead donors.

however transplants are soemtimes witheld for medical reasons (eg poor health of the potentail recipient (will they survive the op... have they got long term medical complicatiosn or addicitons or lifestyle choices which may compromise the transaplant Eg a compromised immune system)... or the old favourite that they are too old. (it may be that there is a crude calcualtion that says a transplant may extend the life of a young fit recipient by say 30..50 years, an elderly patient by around 5..10 years

so the ethical choices are in a situation of rationing of kidneys... who do you give a new kidney to, and by doing that who do you deprive of the possiblilty of an improved life (measured by what method (life extension, not having to do dialysis... whatever). When you make thoise decisions are they rational, shoudl you take into account medical need or patient outcomes. should you do transplants on a first come first served (ie the longer you have waited ont he list the higher up the list you go), or do you cherry pick they perosn you think will have the best outcome (possibloy the youngest, the fittest and the healthiest.

do you trade off length of time they have survived on Dialysis against liklihood of outcome.

the financial cost is realtively easy to calculate... consider ho long someone will survive on dialysis (and jh0pw much it costs to provide them with the dialysis service / faciltiies), against the cost of doing a transplant and the drugs they will require for the rest of their life.

the benefit is probably noit calculated but is still there. An elderley retuired person is probably no economically active and therefore is probably not worth much in transplant economics, whereas someone int he teens or early twenties has plenty of tax earning potential.

Answer 5

I couldn't just sit around and do nothing like my doctors suggested.

They didn't want me to do anything or to take herbs or herbal remedies, but I had to try something - they just wanted me to do dialysis!

This program allowed me to take control of my health. I went from Stage 4 to Stage 3 kidney disease.

It was easy to do and my BUN, creatinine and anemia are all in better ranges.

Reversing Your Kidney Disease?

Answer 6

Heal Kidney Disease Forever :
http://NaturallyGo.com/Help

Answer 7

i know that dialysis consumes your life 4 to 6 hours, 3 times a week, and then when your done you are wore out..a transplant gives you a life , not tied to the dialysis machine..and you can resume most of your dreams and ambitions

Answer 8

You cant put a black persons kidney in a white man, it just isnt done.
You cannot put a womans kidney into a man.
If the patient does not pay us $50000 we will not save thier life with the kidneys that we have.
These are a sample of what you are looking for, some are actuall quotes, some I just wrote from factuall information that I have seen.

Answer 9

idk sorry