The limits of a principlist approach in the ethics of donation of elements and products of the human body. About some examples

Abstract

Voluntary, non-remunerated donations are fundamental principles with anonymity regarding donations of elements and products of the human body in France. Blood donation was a model to organize donation of organs, hematopoietic stem cell or gamete. These principles, which at first glance appear to be intangible, commonly accepted and transposable between the different types of donation, though reveal singularities regarding to a collective imagination, a biological reality, evolution of society, medicine and science. Through the study of these different principles applied to donated human body parts, this article aims to highlight the ethical limitations of a single principlist approach. The notions of anonymity, consent, voluntariness, non for profit, under their universal aknowledge, reveal variability of interpretation and scope due to the heterogeneous characteristics, implications and purposes between these donations of different elements and the uses made of them.