Wow I didn’t realize so few people had hand transplants. For numbers that low in the human experience, I like to compare with the number of people who’ve been to space.
At 200 transplants, that is twice as rare as going to space!
At 200 transplants, that is twice as rare as going to space!
”The operation is quite extensive and typically lasts from 8 to 12 hours. By comparison, a typical heart transplant operation lasts 6 to 8 hours”.
Apart from that, there’s the psychological aspect. Recipients must accept their new hand as theirs. That can require extensive psychological support.
Then, there’s the ethical aspect. Unlike heart transplants, a hand transplant isn’t life-saving, but like it, it condemns patients to the life-long use of immunosuppressants, with the side effect of a weaker immune system. Prosthetics may be the better choice. It also is a lot cheaper. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3499956/ claims
”The lifetime cost of a single hand transplantation is approximately $528,293; on average 62% of this total is due to expensive immunosuppressive therapy and postoperative management.18 The lifetime cost for a single prosthetic adaptation is approximately $20,653
[…]
The quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) of prosthetic adaptation exceed those for hand transplantation, due to the complications of immunosuppression.”
> Then, there’s the ethical aspect. Unlike heart transplants, a hand transplant isn’t life-saving, but like it, it condemns patients to the life-long use of immunosuppressants, with the side effect of a weaker immune system. Prosthetics may be the better choice.
Surely it's up to the transplant recipient to decide what will be best for them? I'm sure there are many people to whom the trade off will be worth it. How exactly do "ethics" come into play here?
If they pay for it sure.
When society pays then no.
When society pays for things they have a right to pay when it statistically makes sense.
Just because someone has a feeling they are different doesn't mean society should take large amounts of communal money from the disability sector to give to them.
Patients typically are fairly shortly after traumatic injury, and don’t really know what either option entails.
Combine that with the Hippocratic oath or its modern equivalent, which requires doctors to do what’s in the best interest of the patient, and there’s a clear conflict.
(Couldn’t find an example directly related to this, but the general problem is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_ethics#Between_autonom...)
I think, hopefully I won't find out for sure!