The Injustice and Moral Wrongs of Affective and Psychotic Disorders as Exclusion Criteria for Organ Transplant Candidates

Organ transplantation is notably one of the most astounding breakthroughs in modern medicine. While miraculous, organ transplantation is deficient in its abundance and accessibility, leading to the necessity of a prioritization system for organ distribution. Although certain patients may not meet the medical criteria to accept an organ transplant successfully, there is a population of patients who would physiologically benefit from transplantation but are rejected based on pre-determined non-medical criteria. The presence of psychotic disorders is widely considered a relative or absolute contraindications to transplantation, meaning either a patient is regarded as a lower priority or wholly excluded from being a transplant candidate. The argument that considers psychotic disorders detrimental to transplantation has the overwhelming potential to cause more harm than benefit to society, contradictory to its foundational idea. Not only is suggesting affective disorders as harmful to transplantation medically and empirically inaccurate, but it also perpetuates the negative stigma towards psychotic disorders and carries detrimental implications to those with such diagnoses. The lack of substantial evidence behind attitudes towards psychotic disorders in transplantation, combined with the ramifications of approaching psychosocial variables with a utilitarian lens, paints a clear picture that there is a need for justice and such practices do not represent equitable or ethical medical practices.