Ethics of Allocating an Artifical Kidney

More than 100,000 people in the United States await kidney transplantation, while 400,000 people live with endstage kidney disease that requires hemodialysis, the most common treatment for advanced kidney failure. However, the kidney transplantation method is hindered by the scarcity of available donors and the increase of waiting times and patients’ mortality while on the waiting list. Donor organ shortage and a permanent kidney replacement is now replaced with an artificial kidney made from biocompatible scaffolds in my ethical scenario. Artificial kidneys are a very beneficial innovation that are a great alternative to transplantation. When it comes to ethical dilemmas such as deciding the allocation of treatments and services, my attitude is that if you can help someone in need, then you should. Analyzing the situation is what will help engineers to get through the process of making such difficult decisions.