Institute of Allied Health Sciences, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK.
Department of Adult Nursing, King's College London, London, UK.
J Med Ethics. 2019 Sep;45(9):575-578. doi: 10.1136/medethics-2019-105554. Epub 2019 Jul 29.
We draw on the concept of dignity to consider the ethics of the disposal of amputated limbs. The ethics of the management and disposal of human tissue has been subject to greater scrutiny and discussion in recent years, although the disposal of the limbs often remains absent from such discourses. In light of the recent UK controversy regarding failures in the medical waste disposal and the stockpiling of waste (including body parts), the appropriate handling of human tissue has been subject to further scrutiny. Although this scandal has evoked concern regarding procurement and supply chain issues, as well as possible health and safety risks from such a 'stockpile', the dignity of those patients' implicated in this controversy has been less widely discussed. Drawing at Foster's (2014) work, we argue that a dignity framework provides a useful lens to frame consideration of the disposal of limbs after amputation. Such a framework may be difficult to reconcile with the logic of business and the 'biovalue' of the medical waste, but would we argue afford more patient-centred approaches towards disposal. It may also facilitate better practices to help mitigate future stockpiling incidences.
我们借鉴尊严的概念来考虑截肢后肢体处理的伦理问题。近年来，人体组织的管理和处置的伦理问题受到了更多的关注和讨论，尽管肢体的处理往往不在这些讨论之列。鉴于最近英国在医疗废物处理和废物（包括人体部位）囤积方面的失败引发的争议，人体组织的适当处理受到了进一步的审查。尽管这起丑闻引发了人们对采购和供应链问题以及由此产生的“库存”可能带来的健康和安全风险的关注，但涉及到这起争议的患者的尊严问题却没有得到广泛讨论。借鉴福斯特（2014 年）的工作，我们认为尊严框架为考虑截肢后肢体的处理提供了一个有用的视角。这种框架可能难以与商业逻辑和医疗废物的“生物价值”相协调，但我们认为它更能体现以患者为中心的处理方法。它还可以促进更好的实践，以帮助减轻未来的库存积压事件。
