Most people and including this writer, probably have never given a lot of thought about organ donation, aside from checking ‘yes’ box for DMV. A far amount of people believe that once a person is dead, that using what is left of the body so another can benefit from the donation or, perhaps, even save another human being’s life. However, what about selling a kidney not donating one? The essay “Organ Sales Will Save Lives” written by Joanna McKay, delves a lot deeper into the hot topic of human organ sales and the need to change the laws. She makes a compelling argument for the legality of organ sales as well as an ethical one. In her essay, Joanna McKay gives many reasonable incentives to persuade the reader. She points out that …show more content…
There is no one to turn because whole business is illegal. Miss McKay believes that regulating organ sales is not just a safer way for organ transplant but believes it is a moral and ethical duty to help those in need and secure a safe way to see that happens. “Is it moral to sentence thousands to unnecessary deaths?”(96) McKay believes it is immoral. This writer completely agrees. Over the years, kidney transplants have become much safer and easier to perform due to medical advances and new medications on the market and the risk for the donor and the recipient is very low. A person should have the right to do what they want with their own body, especially when it comes to matters of life and death. Selling a kidney to help one financially, as well as helping another person live a longer and fuller life is ethically correct. If a person can sell blood, sperm, and even pregnant women who are either surrogates or giving up their baby to a childless couple, have their entire medical and lifestyle needs paid for by the adopting parents, then why cannot similar rules be made for organs sales? Tens of thousands of lives could be saved if countries change their laws. Imagine what a true and wonderful difference in the lives of these people could be made.
Summary and Analysis 1
English 112
Joanna Sharkey
Works Cited
McKay, Joanna. Organ Sales Will Save Lives. Ed. Richard Bullock, Maureen Daly Groggin, and Francine Weinberg. New York:
In “Organ Sales Save Lives”, the author argues for the legalization and regulation of selling human organs, specifically kidneys, to those who need them. Her reasoning is that the laws forbidding this practice have enabled a black market that is harmful to both buyer and seller of organs. MacKay states that with no legally enforceable contracts and dubious procedural standards both parties in these transactions expose themselves to unnecessary risk. She claims that buyers can wait up to 10 years before receiving a kidney, with many dying before then, and sellers often do not receive fair compensation. MacKay believes that we do not have the moral right to try to stop those who live in abject poverty from selling a part of their own body to
In the article “Kidneys for Sale: A Reconsideration,” the author, Miriam Schulman raises the notoriously controversial issue regarding organ sale. He describes the main ideas from both the supporting and the opposing side to give readers a wider view about organ sales.
There are diversified augments in favor of and against organ sales. I will focus on the arguments of Joanna MacKay from her essay “Organ Sales Will Save Lives” and R.R Kishore’s essay “Human Organs, Scarcities, and Sale: Morality Revisited”. MacKay argues in favor of organ trade legalization stating “government should not ban the sale of human organs; they should regulate it. Kishore argues against organ trade legalization stating “the integrity of the human body should never be subject to trade”.
Since the WHO is not, in any way, going to lift the ban, and one of the most efficient ways to increase the supply of available organs for the thousands of people on organ waiting lists is to make some form of donation and selling legal, other options must be sought-after. By combining two opposing viewpoints it is possible for a whole new approach to this rapidly growing problem to transpire, for there may be more agreeable aspects than what meets the eye.
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
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.
Every day, numerous people across the world stop their lives for four hours to get hooked up to a dialysis machine at a hospital nearby. This machine helps to remove harmful wastes, toxins, excess salt, and water from their body because unfortunately their body cannot do so for them. These people wait on a list until they can one day receive a kidney transplant because kidney failure has resulted in their body not being able to clean their blood properly. More than 300,000 Americans have kidney failure and use dialysis daily and the statistics are only continuing to grow. I am going to argue that the best to solve this problem is to legalize the regulated sale of organs to better society as a
Throughout history physicians have faced numerous ethical dilemmas and as medical knowledge and technology have increased so has the number of these dilemmas. Organ transplants are a subject that many individuals do not think about until they or a family member face the possibility of requiring one. Within clinical ethics the subject of organ transplants and the extent to which an individual should go to obtain one remains highly contentious. Should individuals be allowed to advertise or pay for organs? Society today allows those who can afford to pay for services the ability to obtain whatever they need or want while those who cannot afford to pay do without. By allowing individuals to shop for organs the medical profession’s ethical
I personally feel that they should legalize selling organs but it would need to be regulated. I feel that people selling the organs must first sign a waiver stating what organs they are willing to sell. They then would need to be harvested in a safe sanitary environment by a trained
The need of human organs for transplantation increases every single day and every passing month. Thousands of people are on the waiting list hoping for a chance at a new life. Unfortunately, the supply of available organs through organ donations is not able to provide for the growing demand of organs. According to a research conducted by the Hasting Center, “there are close to 100,000 people on the waiting list for a kidney, heart, liver, lung, and intestines, the pressure to find ways to increase their supply is enormous (Capland, 2014, p. 214). The shortage of human organs is leading people to participate in unethical acts. The pressure of finding available organs has resulted in healthcare professional and
Anything that is movable in which an individual has ownership over is personal property; it is something that belongs to that individual (Personal Property). With that being stated, an organ is something that is considered a personal property of an individual. Since it belongs to an individual, why is it unmoral for them to participate in organ sales? Well, the answer is that the human body should not be used to gain monetary incentives. Director of Human Genetics Alert, Dr. David King, made a comment on sales regarding the human body, “it is wrong to make part of the human body a commodity, the body should not be part of commerce,” (Adam Smith Institute, 2011). Indeed, the body should not be part of commerce for it is corrupt and will lead to many situations which is why organ donation does not interfere with personal
In a world where life expectancy has increased tremendously over the last century because of new technology and medical procedures, we find humanity ever pushing the boundaries on what it can do to prevent loss of life where possible. One example is the area of organ donation and transplantation. However, unlike many other technologies or procedures which can be built, manufactured, or learned, organ transplantation requires one thing that we can’t create yet: an organ itself. Because our increased life span causes more people to require a replacement organ when theirs starts to fail, the demand has far outrun the supply and the future only looks to get worse. “Between the years 1988 and 2006 the number of transplants doubled, but the
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
The legalization of organ sales has been proposed as a solution to two distinct problems. The first is the problem of illegal organ trafficking and the second is the problem of inadequate supplies of organs available for transplants. Gregory (2011) outlined the case for legalizing organ sales by arguing that the current shortage of organs fuels a black market trade that benefits nobody except criminals. He further argues that such a move would add organs to the market, thereby saving the lives of those who would otherwise die without a transplant, while delivering fair value to the person donating the organ. There are a number of problems with the view that legalizing the organ trade is beneficial. Such a move would exacerbate negative health outcomes for the poor, strengthening inequality, but such a move would also violate any reasonable standard of ethics, by inherently placing a price on one's life and health. This paper will expand on these points and make the case that we should not allow people to pay for organs.
Selling organs is a rising problem in the healthcare community, government and morality. Organ sales has become the topic of discussion for numerous reasons. Some of which being lowering the wait time on the organ transplant waitlist and taking advantage of the financially disadvantaged. This issue affects many people on many different levels, some people morally or legally but mostly importantly medically. What this basically comes down to is: “Who are we to judge what people do with their bodies?”. The answer to this question lays in many different sources. The simplified answer is no we can not tell people what they can and can not tell other people what they can and can ot do with their bodies.