Persuasive Essay On Organ Trafficking

Every day some dies after waiting years on a transplant list. The National Organ Transplant Act of 1984 says that in the United States, the sale of organs is illegal. Some believe this act may be preventing thousands of people from getting the organs that will save their lives. The truth is every day someone dies and their organs could be used to help others and everyday a life of one and the livelihood of another could be saved. The reasons for allowing the sale of organs is very simple to understand. It can help others financially, save money on medical expenses and most importantly, save lives. Critiques believe this would be a mistake causing spur of the moment decisions, and illegal obtain these organs for sale. With the use of regulation, these doubts can be laid to rest. Before the problem can be solved, the problem has to be identified.

There is no denying that organ transplants save many lives. Nevertheless a issue exists because the demand for organs surpasses the legally accessible supply. The selling and purchasing of human organs is illegal all around the world. As a consequence a black market has been created to help satisfy the need of human organs. The black market consists of the rich, the poor and the broker. The rich uses the broker to help organize the purchase of organs from the poor and arrange the transplant operation. Many argue that the simple answer to this is to establish a legitimate firmly monitored organization for selling and purchasing human organs and others argue against that proposed answer. In this essay I will list and compare augments in

“Illegal trade in kidneys has risen to such a level that an estimated 10,000 black market operation involving purchased human organs now take place annually or more than one an hour” (The Guardian, 2012). People that are in the need of an organ and willing to participate in illegal activities will either send a broker or go directly to another country where people are lacking in the knowledge of the situation or have an extreme disability and buy an organ rom that individual. In most cases a broker will promise the seller a great amount of money, but in the end they will only receive a fraction of the money that was promised and for some they receive no money. If a broker cannot buy an organ they will steal one. “However, when the organ, like many other valuables that cannot be bought, it is stolen resulting in flagrant violation of human rights” (U.N.O.D.C, 2000). It is currently illegal to buy or sell human organ in the United States and many other countries. People involved with the operation of human trafficking will be charged with a trafficking offence. “For a trafficking offence to be established must be evidence of an illegal act (recruitment) followed by an illegal means (coercion) for the purpose of exploitation (organ harvesting), one in ten organ transplants are illegal” (U.N.O.D.C, 2000). Illegal sales of organs are increasing the rate of criminal

Organ trafficking is one of the great issues that is faced by the society today. It is a practice of stealing people’s organ through surgery under the influence of drugs or from a dead person, and the organs are normally sold in black market such as China. South Africa, and Russia. WHO has estimated that one-fifth of the 70,000 kidneys that are transplanted every year come from the black market through a widespread organ-trafficking networks. In my opinion, organ trafficking has become an international trade due to several reasons.

Over the last few decades, the number of patients on organ waiting lists in the US has continued to soar way above the number of organ donor. In some cases, patients have died waiting for organs from donors. According to available statistics, more than 100,000 patients are in the US transplant list waiting for organ donors. On the other hand, only 20% of these patients are likely to receive a legitimate organ donor and the fate of the other 80% lies in the balance (Rattenni 20). This shortage in the life saving organ transplant has led to a surge in illegal human trafficking cartels and black market vendor ready to exploit the desperate situation of these patients. In some cases, there have been cases of living donor ready to sale their organs for cash rewards.

Dying painfully in a hospital bed is not the way anyone wants to go. Unfortunately for many people, it is a reality. Thousands of people a year end up dying while waiting for an organ that could save their lives. While on the other side of the world, thousands of people die a year, but from infection when an organ is forcefully taken from them to sell on the black market. There are two sides of the organ donation list, and both can end in death. This paper will discuss the shortage of donated organs and the issues with the current donation system. It will also discuss the black market for transplant organs and possible solutions to viable organ shortage. The focus of this paper will be on transplant kidneys as they are the most desirable organ for buyers and sellers.

More than 110,000 people are on waiting lists for organs they may not ever get in time (mantel). This has caused an organ black market in which people are trading their or other individuals’ organs for illegal money. In case making criminals out of normal people. In 2009, the FBI arrested a Brooklyn rabbi for illegal organ trade, he was buying organs from overseas for a mere ten thousand dollars and selling here in the black market for upwards of one hundred sixty thousand (Krauthammer). An organ trade of some sort needs to become legal and people need chances to be compensated for their organs. Also with the market becoming legal, patients will be in better hands pre-operation and post-operation.

The desperation that rose as a result of the human organ shortage crisis led to the creation of an entire new business in the black market: transplant tourism. A similar term, called medical tourism, is defined as “the travel of residents of one country to another country for treatment” (Cohen, 2013). Like medical tourism, transplant tourism involves traveling as well, but with the motive of purchasing organs for transplant (Cohen, 2013). It is currently illegal in all countries—besides Iran, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia—to exchange human organs for money. Yet this particular black market still happens to thrive in many destination countries due to the government’s failure to monitor the issue or the absence of resources to detect its general occurrence. The parties involved in this business consist of three different categories: sellers, recipients, and brokers. The majority of sellers come from the poorest parts of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India. The recipients come from the more affluent countries like the Middle East, south Asia, Europe, and North America. The brokers are the people running this particular black market and they reside in the countries where the illegal transplants occur: Istanbul, Cesenau, Moldova, Tel Aviv, and Manila—just to name a few (Cohen,

It is an indisputable fact that under the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984, there is a larger demand for organs than there is available supply. As a result, people in need of kidney or liver transplants die every year while waiting. Under the current system, the only way to receive an organ transplant is either by having a family member selflessly volunteer to donate theirs, or by being put on a waiting list to receive an organ from the recently deceased. To combat this lack of supply, some in need of transplants desperately turn to the black market, paying enormous sums of money for organs that were more than likely taken illegally. Others die waiting for a transplant that was never realistically going to happen in time. In essence, the gap between supply and demand for organs is causing both a loss in quantity and quality of lives. However, changing policy to allow payments to organ donors would drastically reduce this gap, therefore decreasing wait time for organs and saving lives. The crucial step that must be taken to save these lives is to repeal the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984 which prohibits the sale of organs.

Organ trafficking is an illegal act that occurs globally. Traffickers are taking organs out of people using unhealthy medical procedures that cause serious health problems in many people in countries all over the world. Money is a strict motivation that keeps this black market running and increasing due to the disproportionate ratio of organs needed to survive, and organs available to transplant. There are many arguments revolving around the issue of organ donation in terms of ethics, limiting the ways people can donate. There is a very long process one would have to go through if considering donation, including a psychological examination in addition to the first part of the process to determine if the organ from the donor is a match for the recipient. Selling organs for profit is considered unethical as society views organ transplantation as an act that should be an altruistic donation, meaning that donations should be done without profit. Although there are laws restricting the act of organ trafficking, it is a growing industry because people do not understand the gravity of the damage being caused to targeted individuals and the community. In order to make a global change to put an end organ trafficking, people unaware of the activity should be educated of the act and the negative consequences it can have on multiple levels of the community. Organ trafficking can hurt an individual physically, mentally and financially

Every ten minutes a new person is added to the waiting list for organ transplants. With only three in one thousand people dying in a way that allows for organ donation, twenty-two people die each day waiting for a transplant. Almost all U.S. adults support organ donation, but less than half are actually signed up as organ donors (Organ Donation Statistics). Currently, the people desperate for organs or money turning to illegal hospitals and black-markets for buying and selling organs. Though the members of organ trafficking are rarely exposed and therefore the size of the problem is unknown, something has to be done for the people in need of organs now. The near future should hold a piece of health care technology that creates organs, combatting the unfortunate statistics of organ donations and the organized crime of trafficking organs.

The U.S Congress passed The National Organ Transplant Act of 1984, to fix the national organ donation shortage and improve the organ donation process. The act has since established the Organ and Transplantation Network (OPTN) to maintain a national registry for organ matching. In the United States, there are around 75,000 people on the active waiting list for organs, with only about 8,000 decreased donors each year (CDC, 2017). Thus, living donors are extremely important and provide around 6,000 organs each year (CDC, 2017). A maximum-security prison works in collaboration with an academic medical center to give monetary incentive and parole incentives to prisoners if they donate organs and blood. For the academic medical center the prison is a great resource to increase organ donations, and for the prison to teach inmates good deeds. However, monetary incentives for prisons is unethical and a problem from a legal standpoint.

Wikipedia is a good start because it gives me a general background information on organ transplantation. The website contains contents that are describe in details. The details include the type of transplant, the process of transporting the organ and tissue to the right place, and the types of donor. Through this, I was able to discover some ethical issues such as forced donation and illegal removal of organs without consent. I learned that doctors in the UK have accused China of mistreating its high capital punishment rate (China claims that the selling of organs were illegal as of July 2006 and that all prisoner organ donors have filed consent). I also learned that one of the driving forces for illegal organ trafficking is the value differences for organs and transplant operation in different parts of the

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.

The delegate of Russia believes even though some nations like Russia are trying to get rid of organ trafficking, without the uncompromising effort of the other developed nations to ban importing trafficked organs within their own countries, it will be impossible to end this injustice. Developed countries must organize a system that would encourage an increase in legal organ donors, such as the opt-out system which has been successfully introduced in several countries, or reconsider and deregulate the present system on the basis of WHO guidelines. At the same time, laws must be organized to punish illegal trafficking groups in order to protect poor ‘donors’ from being lured into the organ trade.