Mark Farnham
Courtesy of Lancaster Online
Who should get an organ transplant? What role does personhood play in organ transplantation? What is the donor’s medical history?
On Friday night, Mark Farnham will discuss “How Far Will We Go: The Medical Ethics of Organ Transplantation From A Recipient,” hosted by the Row House Forum.
Farnham, 51, is a professor of apologetics and director of pre-seminary majors at Lancaster Bible College. A former Baptist pastor, he previously taught ethics courses at Calvary Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.
As the title of his talk suggests, he also is an organ recipient, having received a kidney from his brother in 2010.
According to the United Network for Organ Sharing in Richmond, Virginia, more than 116,000 men, women and children are on organ transplant waiting lists in this country.
In a brief interview earlier this week, Farnham said the growth in the number of people who need organ transplants has highlighted the importance of knowing key factors surrounding transplantation.
Some of those factors include the recipient’s age, medical condition and ability or willingness to follow physicians’ orders following an organ transplant. In Farnham’s case, he said doctors had to be confident he would continue to take medication to keep his body from rejecting the kidney.