Who Gets The Kidney?


You are Director of the St Lucia General Hospital. Your staff have just approached you with a problem - there are 6 patients vying for a kidney transplant and they, the staff, cannot agree who should get it.


Arthur is 29 years of age, aboriginal, married with three children. He is a regular smoker, ex-amateur boxing champion, coaching mentally disabled students, working as a teacher.


Betty is a divorcee with two children, aged 34. $he works as a senior counsellor for Lifeline. She is fit and healthy, lives in an inner suburb and is comfortably off as a result of her divorce settlement.


Charlie is 19 years of age, unemployed, has had a couple of brushes with the law. At the moment, he is living with a woman who has a child by a former de facto. They live in a caravan park. He is hoping to become a mechanic.


Deborah is 62, happily married, three children and two grandchildren. She runs a child care centre, is on the local school council, and the Board of the hospital. She and her husband are major benefactors of the hospital but are adamant that that does not entitle them to any special privileges.


Edward is 55. A one-time Olympic athlete, he now devotes most of his time to the Institute of Sport on a voluntary basis. His life expectancy is no more than five years. He is a widower and has no dependents.


Fiona is a 15 year old who has experimented with drugs - there is also a history of drug abuse in the family. The mother is divorced and has three other younger children; they rely on welfare payments.

There is no right or wrong answer to this exercise, but have a look at this clipping from a British newspaper to see how relevant this example is to real life. In a group exercise situation, I have let groups work for a while, then announced that the one I think they are all going to choose, has just died - so they have to start all over again!