Organ Donation Essay

Organ transplantation is a term that most people are familiar with. When a person develops the need for a new organ either due to an accident or disease, they receive a transplant, right? No, that 's not always right. When a person needs a new organ, they usually face a long term struggle that they may never see the end of, at least while they are alive. The demand for transplant organs is a challenging problem that many people are working to solve. Countries all over the world face the organ shortage epidemic, and they all have different laws regarding what can be done to solve it. However, no country has been able to create a successful plan without causing moral and ethical dilemmas.

All aspects of health care face the inevitability of moral and ethical issues arising on numerous fronts. The organ donation and transplantation field of medicine is no exception. Each day, approximately 18 people die waiting for an organ to become available for transplant (Taranto, 2010). In the grand scheme of things this may not seem a significant number; however, the fact that over 6,500 individuals with families, friends, and an otherwise productive life will die needlessly every year is obviously a far cry from acceptable. This particular lack

Today we are in great need of a solution to solve the problem of the shortage of human organs available for transplant. The website for Donate Life America estimates that in the United States over 100 people per day are added to the current list of over 100,000 men, women, and children that are waiting for life-saving transplants. Sadly enough, approximately 18 people a day on that list die just because they cannot outlive the wait for the organ that they so desperately need to survive. James Burdick, director of the Division of Transplantation for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services confirms, “The need for organ transplants continues to grow and this demand continues to outpace the supply of transplantable organs”. The

Throughout time Organ transplanting has been an important medical procedure that has been present, not only in the United States, but around the globe. It is the process of surgically removing an organ from on patient and then transplanting it into the other. This practice is usually used when a recipient’s own organ fails to function properly or has

According to the American Transplant Foundation, more than 120,000 people in the United States are on the waiting list to receive lifesaving organ transplant. Every 10 minutes a new name is added to the transplant waiting list and on average around 20 people die per day due to a lack of organ availability. The never changing high number of demands for organs and high shortage of donors in the United States of America has made a gap between the numbers, therefore a discussion has raised- how to lower this gap. China, for example, has found a solution- they used death-row inmate’s organs for transplant operations. A report from international team, which included human rights lawyers and journalist estimated that 60,00 to 10,000 organs are

The medical industry had been achieving more in the stage of medical advancements, though they are still in the early phase. Artificial organs have been one of those achievements. Although they have achieved such, artificial organs are not perfect. Most doctors as well as patients would prefer to replace a dying organ with a compatible human organ, rather than with an artificial or animal organ. Yet due to a there being less organs donated than recipients, artificial and animal organs are becoming more common in transplants. Most of this issue is because people are unaware of how organ donation works, the organs that can be donated, how many people are in need, and the advancements that have happened in the field. Organ donation saves hundreds of lives every year, but many lives are recklessly lost due to a shortage of organ donors.

In February 2003, 17-year-old Jesica Santillan received a heart-lung transplant at Duke University Hospital that went badly awry because, by mistake, doctors used donor organs from a patient with a different blood type. The botched operation and subsequent unsuccessful retransplant opened a discussion in the media, in internet chat rooms, and in ethicists' circles regarding how we, in the United States, allocate the scarce commodity of organs for transplant. How do we go about allocating a future for people who will die without a transplant? How do we go about denying it? When so many are waiting for their shot at a life worth living, is it fair to grant multiple organs or multiple

Lack of organ donors is a major issue worldwide and we can help them by giving them a gift of life.

Pericles once was so wise to say, “What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven in the lives of others.” Early attempts at organ transplants stem back throughout history, however, the first successful kidney transplant was performed in 1954. Up until then, numerous people died deaths that could have been prevented by a transplant. The need for organs continues to grow as living increases in danger: new diseases emerge and new wars must be fought. Thankfully, this advancement within medicine has allowed for new fields to open up within society, and it has offered hope to those who had given up. Collaboration has never been greater than the teamwork shown throughout the process of organ transplants. “In

First of all, it is important to understand the history of organ donation. It is not only important to know the history, but to examine the differences between donation in the past and what it is like today. Although many forms of study are always improving, Medicine is one that is constantly and drastically changing. Throughout the past century, all practices of healthcare have changed almost completely. Through technology and brilliant minds, medicine has boomed in opportunities. When a sick individual would be sent home to die almost twenty years ago, there are now endless treatments and possibilities today. Along with the boom of

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

D. Thesis - Organ donation and Transplants are the most remarkable success stories in the history of medicine. They give hope to

The New York Organ Donor Network makes such a donation possible after the organ could not be accepted for potential organ donation. At times, it happens that some institutes request for some specific organs for research. Then, the Donor Network furthers this request of a particular organ to the donors ' families.

The problems plaguing the current state of organ transplantation are more multidimensional than numbers. Issues are present from the national level all the down to the individual patient. Right at the onset of the entire process, identifying potential donors is difficult and problematic to subject to a set of standardized criteria. One of the reasons for this is that the sources of organs are varied. Still, the primary source of organ donation is cadavers. To certify death, the accepted criteria is that of brain death. After certification, another issue is ensuring the condition of the organs is maintained in a manner acceptable to be transplanted. Yet another issue is that the list is not static. The condition of patients can unfortunately deteriorate to the point where their eligibility to be placed on the list is lost. Additionally, given the chronic shortage of organs available and the extended amount of time some patients have to wait, some patients die before they are reached on the list.

In the United States today, people lose their lives to many different causes. Though this is tragic, there are also a large group of people who could benefit from these deaths; and those people are people in need of an organ transplant. Although a sudden or tragic death can be heart breaking to a family, they could feel some relief by using their loved ones' organs to save the lives of many others. This act of kindness, though, can only be done with consent of both the victim and the family; making the donation of organs happen much less than is needed. The need for organs is growing every day, but the amount provided just is not keeping up. Because of the great lack of organ donors, the constant need for organs,