Is It Time For Rethinking America 's Organ Transplant Law?

This paper is going to focus on the importance of getting a better way for Medicare to handle the needs of transplant patients. The current situation isn’t a good one. The patients are the ones that suffer while the medical insurance companies and centers keep making more and more money. This is showing to me how much of the healthcare has turned to be about that. The transplant centers are needed but there is so much red tape that they have to go through to be approved by Medicare it makes it hard for them to open. What seems like should be an easy fix sure isn’t when you look into it.

The current system of the United States as well as most of Europe for organ obtaining is through presumed refusal, which is also known as the “opt-in” system. In this system a person’s organs cannot and, “will not be removed from his/her postmortem body unless he/she has explicitly consented to this being done.” (Taylor 383) Under this system, citizens must “opt-in” to become organ donors by registering to become donors. Consequently, this method of obtaining organs does not produce very many organs up for donation. This is true for a variety of reasons, which is why many are suggesting the United States should adopt a new system of presumed consent. Totally opposed to presumed refusal, “under presumed consent it is presumed that persons would prefer to donate their organs for transplantation after their death” (Taylor 383).

It is estimated that roughly 8,000 people die waiting on the transplant list each year. Our current system that resembles an opt-in system proves to be flawed considering it aids the tragic imbalance between need for and supply of transplantable organs. The President’s Commission on Bioethics has identified varying strategies for organ procurement that include the opt-out approach, a financial inducement model, and an organ market- and some scholars have suggested changing the standard of death to higher brain death. It is in my opinion that the most sound alternative to improve the organ deficit in the United States is to implement the opt-out model. This model promises an increase in transplantable organs that would in hopes off-set the many lives lost due to insufficient supply.

It was only a matter of time before a businessman in Virginia saw a way to profit from the success of transplantation. In 1983 H. Barry Jacobs announced the opening of a new exchange through which competent adults could buy and sell organs. His failing was in his decision to use needy immigrants as the source of the organs (Pence 36). As a result Congress, passed the National Organ Transplant Act (Public Law 98-507) in 1984, which prohibited the sale of human organs and violators would be subjected to fines and imprisonment (“Donation Details”).

The demand for organ donors far exceeds the supply of available organs. According to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) … there are more than 77,000 people in the U.S. who are waiting to receive an organ (Organ Selling 1). The article goes on to say that the majority of those on the national organ transplant waiting list are in need of kidneys, an overwhelming 50,000 people. Although financial gain in the U.S and in most countries is illegal, by legalizing and structuring a scale for organ donor monetary payment, the shortage of available donors could be reduced. Legalizing this controversial issue will help with the projected forecast for a decrease in the number of people on the waiting list, the ethical concerns around benefitting from organ donation, and to include compensation for the organ donor.

Innovative advances in the practice of medicine have increased the life span of the average American. This along with the growing population in the United States and has created a shortfall in the number of organs available for transplant today. The current system of allocation used to obtain organs for transplant faces difficulty because of two primary reasons according to Moon (2002). The two perceptions that stop potential organs donors are that the allocation criteria is unfair and favors certain members of society and/or that organs may be allocated to someone who has destroyed their organs by misuse (Moon, 2002). Many individuals decline to donate organs because anyone requiring an organ transplant is placed on a waiting list and it is possible that individuals who have destroyed their organs by their own actions or convicted criminals could receive donated organs before someone whose organs are failing through no fault of their own and positively contribute to society. When a celebrity or wealthy individual requires a transplant they are often viewed as "jumping" the waitlist but

In the article, Kidney International, Drs. Eli and Amy Friedman say, "that as many as 100,000 people could be saved annually by introducing a regulated kidney market” (Clark np). Theoretically, this means that almost every individual on the national transplant waiting list could be saved in less than a year. A well-regulated, legal organ market is the solution to the shortage of organ supply. Most experts say $50,000 would be enough compensation for an organ (Kline np). The open organ market would be operated by the government (Kline np). The government would regulate the compensation to the donor. The compensation would ideally be covered by the patient’s insurance company or Medicare (Kline np). This solved the radical problem of recipients being exploited for money. The ideal solution would be that donors would come forward that no patient is left waiting on the waiting list (Kline np).

Every ten minutes, another person is added to the active wait list for an organ donation. That is six people every hour, 144 every day, and 1008 every week. Approximately 120 thousand people need an organ transplant to survive. Of all of those people, only 79 thousand people are on an active wait list, while only 20 thousand transplantations have been completed this year. There are not enough donors to meet the current organ demand, and of those that do donate organs, the costs incurred by the donor do not equal the benefits. The current organ donation system operates under subpar economical standards, and should be revised to allow trade of organs on the free market.

In the United States, there are currently 116,608 people in need of a lifesaving organ transplant, and 75,684 people that are currently active waiting list candidates (HRSA, 2017). Between January and September 2017, there have only been 12,211 organ donors (HRSA, 2017) which is far less that the current demand for lifesaving organs. The shortage of donors could lead to an individual looking for outside sources such as the black market to find their lifesaving organ. Offering incentives to persons who chose to donate their organs or those of a deceased loved one is important because it could stop the illegal selling of organs, save the life of someone in need of an organ transplant and benefit both the donor and recipient.

Remember the 120,000 people that was mentioned earlier, according to the American Journal of Transplantation, the number of People on the wait list would decrease because the number of organs available would increase. The United States Department of Health and Human Services say that in the United states alone, 22 people die each day because of organ shortages. With more organs available, more people have a chance of surviving. Because after all people are more likely to do something if they are going to get paid for it. A counter argument to this claim comes from an article titled, “Body Futures: The Case against Marketing Human Organs." The article states that poor people who are in desperate need of an organ and are unable to pay for it would end up on the long waiting list. This is not true at all. Potential sellers will not chase away donors. Whatever financial encouragements exist, siblings and parents will continue to donate their organs to the people they love. Also like any other charity, if people want to donate out of the ‘goodness’ of their hearts they

In the United States, there are over one hundred thousand people on the waiting list to receive a life-saving organ donation, yet only one out of four will ever receive that precious gift (Statistics & Facts, n.d.). The demand for organ donation has consistently exceeded supply, and the gap between the number of recipients on the waiting list and the number of donors has increased by 110% in the last ten years (O'Reilly, 2009). As a result, some propose radical new ideas to meet these demands, including the selling of human organs. Financial compensation for organs, which is illegal in the United States, is considered repugnant to many. The solution to this ethical dilemma isn’t found in a wallet; there are other alternatives available

Recent medical advances have greatly enhanced the ability to successfully transplant organs and tissue. Forty-five years ago the first successful kidney transplant was performed in the United States, followed twenty years later by the first heart transplant. Statistics from the United Network for Organ Sharing (ONOS) indicate that in 1998 a total of 20,961 transplants were performed in the United States. Although the number of transplants has risen sharply in recent years, the demand for organs far outweighs the supply. To date, more than 65,000 people are on the national organ transplant waiting list and about 4,000 of them will die this year- about 11 every day- while waiting for a chance to extend their life through organ donation

Eighteen; the amount of people who die every day, desperately waiting for their new future. Transplanting an organ from one human to another has become a modern, medical miracle. Yet, with a shortage of organs and a surplus of poverty-stricken, the world has resulted to black market trading. Where it once took years of waiting on an organ wait list to receive that needed body part, it can now take just a few weeks or months to purchase a new life. The need for organs, especially in the United States, has procured an increase in organ trafficking and black market dealings, especially in impoverished countries. With over 120,000 people on the United States organ wait list, and 18 of them dying each day, it would only make sense to offer

Today, only 40% of Americans are registered as organ donors. Over the last 20 years millions and millions of dollars have been spent by lots of wonderful organizations trying to make people aware of the needed of more organ donors (David Undis 83). Over years, some people have argued that the transplant should be based on fairness according to the time waiting on list and been moving to the last ones, and not give it to someone who will take more advantage to it. People who avoid the organ location system by utilizing the exchanges are freeing up organ for people who must remain on the organ waiting list. Every year hundreds of people in the United Kingdom died, while waiting for an organ transplant. Although, the highest number of organ transplant

What’s the ultimate gift? Keys to a brand new car? The latest phone? Or maybe something you have already; it’s natural and visceral: an organ. We don’t often think about our insides as gifts, but to a patient with artificial organs, it’d be Christmas morning twofold. For those on an organ waitlist, these organs can spell life or death so wouldn’t it be a wise idea to organize these organs? As it stands, our laws on organ donation don’t allow organs to get to those in need. Moreover, many patients suffer without organs that they could be receiving if our laws allowed them. Sadly, we’re in an organ drought it seems. So how can we hold a canteen to this organ desert? To satisfy this organ drought, we must find some solution, and that solution resides in the reform of our organ donation legislation. We should reform U.S. organ donation.