Browsing by Subject "Gift Giving"

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Open Access
Ethical Issues and Recommendations in Grateful Patient Fundraising and Philanthropy.
(Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, 2018-11) Collins, Megan E; Rum, Steven; Wheeler, Jane; Antman, Karen; Brem, Henry; Carrese, Joseph; Glennon, Michelle; Kahn, Jeffrey; Ohman, E Magnus; Jagsi, Reshma; Konrath, Sara; Tovino, Stacey; Wright, Scott; Sugarman, Jeremy; Participants in the Summit on the Ethics of Grateful Patient Fundraising
Grateful patients provide substantial philanthropic funding for health care institutions, resulting in important societal benefits. Although grateful patient fundraising (GPFR) is widespread, it raises an array of ethical issues for patients, physicians, development professionals, and institutions. These issues have not been described comprehensively, and there is insufficient guidance to inform the ethical practice of GPFR. Consequently, the authors convened a "Summit on the Ethics of Grateful Patient Fundraising," with the goal of identifying primary ethical issues in GPFR and offering recommendations regarding how to manage them. Participants were 29 experts from across the United States who represented the perspectives of bioethics, clinical practice, development, law, patients, philanthropy, psychology, and regulatory compliance. Intensive discussions resulted in articulating ethical issues for physicians and other clinicians (discussions with patients about philanthropy; physician-initiated discussions; clinically vulnerable patients; conflicts of obligation and equity regarding physician's time, attention, and responsiveness and the provision of special services; and transparency and respecting donor intent) as well as for development officers and institutions (transparency in the development professional-donor relationship; impact on clinical care; confidentiality and privacy; conflicts of interest; institution-patient/donor relationship; concierge services for grateful patients; scientific merit and research integrity; transparency in use of philanthropic gifts; and institutional policies and training in responsible GPFR). While these recommendations promise to mitigate some of the ethical issues associated with GPFR, important next steps include conducting research on the ethical issues in GPFR, disseminating these recommendations, developing standardized training for clinicians regarding them, and revising them as warranted.
Open Access
The Gift of Life: Understanding Organ Donation and Gift Exchange through Literature
(2018-01-12) Martin, Abigail Ellen
My training as a transplant surgeon included intensive education about the anatomy and physiology that makes transplantation feasible, but we rarely examined the act that makes transplantation possible: organ donation. Here I use literature to explore the idea of gift giving as it relates to transplantation. Although organ donation is commonly referred to as giving the “gift of life,” the metaphor of giving a gift may not completely encompass the complicated emotions, motives, and expectations involved. In Chapter 1, I present a brief history of organ transplantation and discuss how the concept of organ donation has been defined legally and administratively in the United States. Chapter 2 explores the idea of gift giving, focusing on the work of Marcel Mauss and comparing his construct with the idea of charitable gift giving. Chapter 3 is a close reading of Richard Selzer’s short story “Whither Thou Goest,” in which a widow deals with the aftermath of donating her husband’s organs. In the final chapter, I examine John Irving’s novel "The Fourth Hand" as it explores the relationship between the recipient of a hand transplant and the widow of the donor. Selzer’s story better reflects the current process of organ donation consistent with charitable gift giving, whereas Irving’s novel provides a potentially helpful alternative view of the relationship between donor and recipient. Both stories highlight the emotional complexities involved in the relationships between donor and recipient, but neither work completely conforms to Mauss’s construct of gift exchange. These stories provide a way to explore organ donation and its effects on both donor and recipient.