Is it true that utilitarianism justifies forced organ donation?
The scenario is usually presented something like this: a doctor has several patients who will die if they don’t receive organ donations. Perhaps one needs replacement kidneys, another needs a replacement heart, or whatever. Now supplies of these organs have come short, and there are no spare organs. There are, however, a number of healthy people available who could be suitable donors, except that they are unwilling to sacrifice themselves to save the others. The number of people required to supply the organs is less than the number of lives can be saved by carrying out the transplants and, in this situation, it is suggested, utilitarianism supports killing some people to save the lives of those in need of replacement organs, since the harm of killing a few is supposed to be less than the harm of many dying. Does this follow? Not necessarily. There are a whole host of side effects we would need to consider. For example, how could we pick a victim for our supplies, without generating fea
