Organ Donations Philosophy Paper

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

According to United Network for Organ Sharing (2010) organ donations and transplantation are the removal of organs and tissues from one person and placed into another person’s body. The need for organ transplantation usually occurs when the recipient organ has failed (UNOS, 2010). Organ donation can save the lives of many individuals who are on the waiting list for an organ donation. Becoming an organ donor can be a difficult decision. Many people have the false beliefs about being an organ donor. An example would be if organ donor is on their driver’s license and a person is in a life-threatening accident everything will not be done to save their life. There is an increase need for organ donors and unfortunately the need for organ

After conducting extensive research I have concluded that for several reasons, congress should repeal the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984. This act outlaws the selling of human organs with a punishment of paying fifty thousand dollars, or five years in prison, or both. Repealing this act would promote more people to be donors, and less money being spent on medicines, and hospital care. Hand in hand with more lives being saved. Although there are certain doubts, and ways people could manipulate the system; the law should be repealed, and new laws put into place to regulate it.

Organ donations not only save lives but also money and time. If organ donations became prevalent the organ recipient would no longer need dialysis. Since there is no need for dialysis the cost to use the machine would lessen; this means that the cost of equipment would decrease, saving the hospital and insurance company’s money. More lives would be saved as well as benefit from those that no longer need an organ. In the book titled “Elements of Bioethics” adult organ transplants are only that have medical insurance. If organs are taken from recently deceased the cost for those that has no medical coverage was lessen. The process of organ transplantation is life changing and time is crucial. With shorter waiting time it would put ease on the person’s heart to know that this lifesaving event would happen sooner rather than later. In addition, when the organ is taken from the recently deceased the risk would be eliminated from

This requires society to take another look at how they see organs as a resource. The transplant community needs to create an awareness effort to display to society how dire the situation is--unnecessary death is being caused by a lack of available organs. American citiziens have to care enough for them to urge their lawmakers to create pathways for success through legal means. If society can accept incentivizing organ donors or creating a rule similar to Tabarrok's "no-give no-take" rule, they can will their lawmakers to create movement through Congress.

Organ donation has the power to change a life ending incident into a life giving one. Throughout the United States many patients are suffering due to the lack of a vital organ, because there is more demand than supply of organs, many patients die without ever receiving one. Although organ donation saves many lives, there have been questions in regards to ethics that surround it. People are even making the argument that it should not be practiced. Another question that has surfaced is, how can organ donation be improved in the United States so that people in need of organs can receive them at a high rate? Even though organ donation in the United States has received criticism due to ethical dilemmas such as priority distribution, contributing to illegal harvesting and alternative sources; the possibilities of saving lives and giving people a second chance outweighs the potential consequences it holds. Organ donation is one of the most important modern day medical marble that needs to be better utilized United States.

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.

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).

Another argument against the idea of a market in human organs, presented by T.L. Zutlevics (Patient Ethicist at the Children, Youth & Women's Health Service in South Australia) is that if organ sales were legal, first-world countries would have a motivation to keep less-developed countries poor so they would have a source of organs.

First of all, everyone should be an organ donor because once you have died there is no need for your organs therefore rather than wasting useful organs they could be used to save another’s life. Statistics show that a single tissue donation can improve lives of 40 people and an organ can save 8. Donating your organs gives others an opportunity for a new life. In addition, after death, they would not be affected in any way with their organs gone and their families wouldn’t have an issue regarding this either because there is no cost. Once a person has deceased, hospitals notify the Organ Procurement Organizations and or Tissue/ Eye banks of death. The organs or tissues then get tested to determine whether the body will accept the organs or not. This step ensures considerably lower risks of the receiving patient’s body rejecting the organ or tissue. Donating

Synopsis: Michael is the head doctor in the emergency ambulance service, dedicating his life to saving others. After heart wrenching flashbacks of the death of his baby sister begin to surface, Michaels priorities change. “one organ donor can save up to eight life’s” Pairing with Kyle, a doctor at the Los Angeles hospital, the duo is doing all that is wrong, for something that is right. With the bureau right on their tail, would you risk it all?

The ethical issue for the majority of people in the U.S. does not seem to be whether donating organs should be allowed, but instead should someone be compensated for their donation. As described earlier, the U.S. has a major shortage of organs and an even greater shortage is found in some areas of the world. However, countries like Iran have found a way to eliminate their shortage completely. “Iran adopted a system of paying kidney donors in 1988 and within 11 years it became the only country in the world to clear its waiting list for transplants.” (Economist, 2011) Although this sounds promising, it is important to look at the effects on the organ donor. In a study done on Iranian donors who sold their kidneys, it was found that many donors were negatively affected emotionally and physically after donating and that given the chance most would never donate again nor would they advise anyone else to do so. (Zargooshi, 2001) Additionally, many claimed to be worse off financially after donating due to an inability to work. (Goyal, 2002) To some, this last set of findings would be enough to supersede the benefit of clearing the organ waiting lists.

Using clones as organ donors is wrong. Even just by adding these clones to our society is saying something negative about the human race. Creating clones for the sole purpose of taking advantage of them, cutting out their organs, and throwing their lives away at 18 puts a negative impact on us human beings. Many people live their lives with the simple goal that they just want to be a good person. But for the people who don't wish to live this lifestyle, "Where do the evils like corruption arise from? It comes from the never-ending greed. The fight for corruption-free ethical society will have to be fought against this greed and replace it with 'what can I give' spirit." Quotes from Abdul Kalam, connect this with my claim and people should realize.

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,

A girl named Ali was born with a liver defect called Progressive Familial Intrahepatic Cholestasis. It wasn’t until she was nine that she was actually diagnosed and the prognosis was clear-- Ali’s disease would get progressively worse and she would die without a liver transplant. After a six-month wait and one false alarm, they got the call. A thirteen year-old girl had died and the liver was a match for Ali. The transplant was a success and the results almost instantaneously. “When I woke I remembered immediately noticing that my skin and eyes were no longer yellow, and I didn’t itch at all. It was amazing,” says Ali. Today, Ali is a healthy twenty year-old junior college student double majoring in art and geography (How Ali Received A New Liver). Ali’s story was only 1 in 116,000 other patient transplant stories. Ali had to wait six months to receive her much needed organ because there is an organ shortage occurring and the only way to stop the shortage is to increase the number of organ donors, living or deceased. A few ways to increase the amount of organ donors is to financially compensate the organ donor or the organ donor’s family for funerals, offer Medicare coverage, and reimburse the donor of cost during the donation process.