Cash for Organs

Sheila Rivers ENG 101/MWF Oct. 29, 2012 Mr. Viquesney Cash for Organs Charity should be the only basis for organ donation. On the other hand, cash compensation for donating organs should be an option and legalized. With the overwhelming need for organs and not enough donors in the United States, an open, regulated, and legal cash-for-organs market is needed to balance the need and shortage of organs. There will always be a need for organ donations.According to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), as of October 2012 there are 116,421 men, women, and children on the organ transplant waitlist to receive hearts, livers, kidneys, and other human organs. With a total of only 8,280 donors alive and deceased so far this year, the need for donated organs far exceeds the donation of organs. This need for donated organs leaves a large gap in transplants and consequently patients wait months, even years on the waiting list for donated organs. Every ten minutes another name is added to th e national organ transplant waiting list.By the time patients get on the waiting list they have been evaluated by a transplant doctor and is in end stage organ failure. According to (organdonor. gov) right now, there are more than enough people waiting for an organ to fill a football stadium twice over. On average, 18 people die every day waiting for a transplant that never happens as a direct result of the lack of organ donations. Patients that can afford it will travel to other countries to purchase organs on the black market to save their life. The National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA) passed in 1984, made the buying and selling of human organs in the United States illegal.Over all too many people die each year waiting for a donated organ that is not available to save their life. The option to sell an organ should be solely left up to the individual who wants to do so, as long as the procedure and all the risks that are involved are fully understood. If someone decides to sell and organ to who ever they want, for a momentary compensation they should have the right to do so. It will not only save the life of the recipient, but also financially compensate the donor in return. After all it is their body and the government should not have the right to tell people that selling an organ for compensation is illegal.With so many people dying and waiting for a life saving organ transplant, this would decrease the deaths and wait time for an organ. In 1988 Iran became one of the first Nations to permit and regulate payment and other incentives for living donor transplants. As a result, the number of renal transplants performed substantially increased such that in 1999, the renal transplant waitlist was completely eliminated. Currently, Iran has no renal transplant waiting list. With results such as this, proves that cash for human organs can potentially eliminate the transplant waitlist in the United States.A number of transplant experts have been convinced tat provid ing financial incentives to organ sources, as an alternative to altruistic organ donation needs careful reconsideration. By permitting an open, regulated, and legal cash-for-organs market this could save the lives of the people who suffer and die daily because of kidney failure while waiting for a donated kidney. The director of Kidney Health Australia said â€Å"if it was carefully regulated in a way that avoided any potential abuse and was organized by the government or some other process that was meaningful, a pilot would be worthwhile doing† [Mathew].If there were some kind of compensation for organ donations, more people would be interested and willing to become organ donors. The kidney is the only organ a person can sell or donate and safely continue to live without. Even though we are born with two kidneys a person can live a full and normal life with just one, in addition to living just as long as a person with two. In the case of a kidney, a love donor is capable of living successfully after a transplant surgery, because over the years surgeries have become safer and less invasive for the donor with less down time.According to the registry data from UNOS, research has shown that a kidney from a live donor is the best option for long-term transplantation. Over the years the number of living donors have steadily decreased while the deceased donors have increased, although the increase in not enough to offset the decrease. NOTA was also created to address the critical organ donation shortage and improve the organ matching and placement process. As said, â€Å"Due to the high success rate of organ transplants over the years it has made getting an organ more difficult.Improved survival rates and the expectation that organ replacement will enhance quality of life have encouraged more doctors and their patients with organ failure to opt for transplantation† [Klein]. The early organ transplants performed routinely had a high mortality rate; the major issue was the patients’ immune system rejected the foreign organ. Throughout the years with the introduction of medicine has helped lower the mortality rate due to the rejection of the foreign organ and organ transplants have become more routine and less experimental.To their surprise, donors do not understand or know how many lives are saved or can be saved simply by donating organs. There are no age requirements to being an organ donor. The fact is everyone can be an organ donor; anybody under the age of eighteen has to have a parental consent. The process of convincing individuals to be an organ donor is challenging, and some of these challenges are a lack of knowledge, fear of premature death, and the lack of trust of the medical profession. Most people do not know what the process of organ donation is and how it works to save lives.People feel that if the doctor knew they where an organ donor he/she would not put as much effort into saving their life because of thi s. If people had a better understanding and more knowledge about the process of organ donation more people would be willing to donate organs to help save lives. Charity should not be the only option for organ donation. When charity is the only option the donor do not have the right to give their organ to who they wish. With so many people on the waitlist for an organ transplant and way to few donors there needs to be another way to attract donors.The cash for organ program that has shown a success in other countries should be looked at on a more serious note. Due to the shortage sever shortage of donated organs that has led to needless death of so many people, the cash for organs seems to be a very legitimate way to save lives. Until modern medicine can completely grow fully develop human organs there will always be a need for human organs and the fastest way to obtain organs for transplant is to offer monetaury compensation.The compensation for human organs will open up a market fo r willing donors. Bibliography optn. transplant. hrsa. gov unos. org Klein, Andrew S. , MD, director of Cedar’s-Sinai Medical Center Declining Organ Donations, Causes Widening Need Gap, Life Science, 22 March 2010 Ahad, Ghods J. , Dr. ‘Iranian Model of Paid and Regulated Living-Unrelated Kidney Donation. † Cjasn. asnjournals. org N. p. , n. d. Web Page 1 www. unos. org Page 2 www. optn. transplant. hrsa. gov Page 2 Andrew S. Klein, MD, director of Cedar’s-Sinai Medical Center