Introduction: Organ transplantation presents ethical issues and value conflicts, making it an ideal dilemma material for school education. It stimulates students to consider their opinions and exchange ideas. Therefore, we have developed a teaching system that we have already tested with 3rd-grade junior high school students in Japan.
Methods: For ethical dilemma discussions on organ transplantation, we selected five themes: (1) The anonymous principle; (2) Overseas transplant by charity; (3) Organ trafficking; (4) Opt-Out; and (5) Priority donation to relatives. Our standardized lesson format addresses: (i) The ethical dilemma theme; (ii) Class objectives; (iii) Key discussion points; and (iv) Class time schedule. The lessons fit within 50 minutes, the typical duration of junior and high school classes. Our current congress presentation focuses on “The anonymous principle” lesson that we already tested with students.
Results: “The anonymous principle” concerns whether the deceased organ donor family and the organ recipient should be allowed to know each other. That parties want to know each other and express their gratitude is only natural, and some countries allow such meetings under set conditions. However, there are potential risks of stalking, resentment, and financial requests, and therefore, in Japan, organ donation is anonymous. Nevertheless, independent of official health system regulations, social networking services (SNS) may enable parties to find each other anyway.
The lesson on “The anonymous principle” is organized as follows: (1) A 5-minute introduction by the teacher on organ transplantations, donors, and recipients; (2) 15 minutes for self-consideration and small group discussion about the perceptions by the donor and his/her family, and the recipient and his/her family; (3) A 10-minute lecture on ethical issues and slippery slope theory; (4) 15 minutes for self-consideration and class discussion about pros and cons of breaking the anonymous principle, including the introduction by the teacher of letters of gratitude by organ recipients; (5) 5 minutes for a final wrap-up and writing down opinions using a worksheet.
Using this protocol, we discussed “The anonymous principle” with 3rd grade students at a junior high school in Japan. From their feedback, we conclude that the students deeply engaged, and seriously gave their opinions on the ethical dilemmas. We were impressed by the depth of the students' thinking, their willingness to listen to the opinions of others, and the transformation of their opinions.
Conclusion: Teaching materials on ethical dilemmas can foster the students’ ability to grasp complex societal issues, consider how to solve them, make understanding-based choices, and verbalize their thoughts. We believe that such discussion on ethical dilemmas in organ transplantation will benefit the students intellectually and spiritually, and lead to a deeper awareness in society of organ transplantation issues.