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Organ Donors Must Not be Paid Essay

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Organ Donors Must Not be Paid

Today, medical operations save lives around the world, a feat that surely would surprise our ancestors. Many operations replace defective organs with new ones; for new organs to be ready to be implanted there need to be organ donors. We are not so advanced a society that we can grow replacement organs. Thousands of organ donors in the United States every year are seen as doing the most noble of deeds in modern civilization, and most of the time death has to occur before the organ can be used. Now, though, some are suggesting that organ donors—or their beneficiaries—should be paid for their donations. This should not happen, as it creates a strain on the already tight national budget, forces …show more content…

Even in recent years where the United States has had a surplus budget, the government starts new programs instead of supporting established things that need considering, such as the foreign debt and Social Security. Can the government really be expected to have enough money to spend on these and other causes and the expensive cost of compensation?

In the United States, organ sales are illegal, and conducted only on the black market and with either unlicensed or underhanded doctors performing the operations. The law prohibiting selling organs is there primarily to protect a person’s life and “pursuit of happiness.” What happens when people get paid for donating organs? A human being only needs one lung and one kidney; many people would endanger their health by donating organs to get money. A booming industry of organ sales would emerge, with some people stooping to violent means in order to forcibly acquire more organs to sell and get rich off of.

Donor” doesn’t quite describe a person being paid for giving something. Reimbursement is the key idea, but how can someone truly donate something with knowledge that he or someone that depends on him will benefit monetarily? A donor is someone who gives willingly without want of thanks or compensation, a volunteer. Donors, volunteers, are not “in it for the money.” A true donor donates his organ simply because it is saving a life, not because he wants himself or his family to get

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