How to Conduct Preliminary Research

The chair of the hospital’s Ethics Committee has asked you to prepare for a debate on buying and selling organs. She’s asked you to review the articles she sent in her email.

This step-by-step guide will help you do your work.

1. As a team, review the email from the Ethics Committee chair. You may want to print the email and highlight the important points. You’ll do your analyses individually, then reconvene as a team to review your analyses of each article. Though you may want each team member to be responsible for paying more close attention to a particular article (and to lead the discussion of it during the team meeting at the end of this task), each team member should read and analyze each article.


2. Each team member should download the Article Review template. You’ll use this to record your work.


3. Individually download and read the articles to help you identify as many arguments as you can both FOR and AGAINST the buying and selling of organs. As you read them, you may want to highlight important information or take notes. Some of the articles you read may be very persuasive. As you read them, keep in mind that you are still gathering information. It is too early to formulate a final opinion whether or not the sale of organs is acceptable under any conditions, and you must be prepared to effectively argue either side of the issue during the debate.

Consider the following questions as you read each article:

1. What argument(s) did the article advocate? Note each argument in either the “for” or the “against” table in the template. What points does the author bring up? Did you agree with these points, i.e., did they make sense to you and seem to support the argument the author makes?


2. Note any conditions under which the author thinks it would be all right to sell organs, and why.

As you take notes, be sure you clearly indicate the author and title of the article you are working on. Later, during the debate you will need to be able to cite the sources of your evidence.

4. Conduct additional research. If you have time may want to conduct additional research using a major search engine, like Google (www.google.com). Look for articles that present arguments both for and against buying and selling organs. As you did for the articles Dr. Jones gave you, note the key points the author makes and any conditions upon which s/he bases the argument.


5. Reconvene as a team to share your analyses of the articles. Review each article:
   1. Note the author’s key argument and supporting points.
   
   
   2. Discuss the strength of the author’s case – do you believe their argument? Why or why not? Would you use this argument during the debate if you end up arguing for the author’s position? Why or why not?
   
   
   3. As a team, discuss whether you feel you have a stronger case for the negative or affirmative position. In the next task, try to strengthen the weaker of your two cases, as you do not yet know which side of the issue you will be arguing.
   
   
   4. During the discussion, each team member should take notes on their individual analysis templates, to reflect new ideas from their teammates. Each team member is expected to turn in his/her own template.
   
   
6. Update your analysis template. Make any edits to your template to be sure you’ve captured the key arguments and supporting points of each article you’ve read.


7. Submit your work. Review the Checklist found on the Submit your Work section of this task and then submit the assignment to your mentor.
   

Ask the Expert

What concerns does the medical community have about selling organs?