Legalizing Organ Selling: Saving Lives or Sacrificing Ethics?

Selling Organs Many people are dying each day because of the lack of organs available. Waiting lists can be as long as 106,000 people. On an average 17 patients in need of transplants die each day. Is this fair to the families or is selling organs a better option? What are the benefits of organ selling and should it be made legal? By legalizing organ selling we would be saving lives. People sell organs on the black market every day; the downfall to this is that the surgeons that remove the organs are not always sanitary or certified.

The article legalizing paid organs: pros and cons states “Establishing a federal agency to oversee organ sales will cut dialysis costs and save lives, of both patients in need of new kidneys and those selling or receiving kidneys illegally by unregulated surgeons. ” This is a good point, the organs would be ensured safe. The people donating would be more motivated to donate more organs if there was an incentive of making money. Some people fear that, “The lawful sale of organs would legitimize human sacrifice. ” Although this might be true successful transplants depended on knowledge of characteristics of the donor.

The origin of the organ to be sold must be known for it to be used. Although many fear legalization of this may bring about a “sacrifice spree” others realize that, “The black market cannot be regulated, but its purpose would be defeated if the sale of organs became lawful”. Also legalizing organ selling will create an unlevel playing field. Meaning that people that could not afford to buy an organ would die and the wealthy people will live. The selling of organs impacts health care workers in many ways. One way could include that the organ is harvested in an unsafe environment causing communicable infections.

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This puts not only the health care worker at risk but also the other patients. A health care worker could feel responsible if a person that has been on a waiting list dies due to the lack of organs when some other patient bought their organ and lived. An example being that a 4 year old boy dies because a 60 year old man bought an organ that the boy would need. This could place unwanted emotional distress on the medical professionals. A health care worker is also put in an ethical dilemma when they do not know where the organ was harvested from.

This meaning that the organ may have been stolen from an unwilling donor and then sold. It could also mean someone was murdered in order to harvest and sell the organs for the sake of profit. 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 professional. I think that after selling the organs they would then be monitored for a period of time to ensure the safety of the patient.

I think that the organs should be then given to the people on the waiting list. People would not be allowed to buy the organs they would go in order with the list. I feel that by giving people the incentive to sell organs buy offering a small amount of money the number of people willing to donate will increase significantly. Where does the money come from that they use to pay the donor? That will be taken off the bill from the hospitals. Surgeons are overpaid as it is, by deducting a small fee towards the donation process it will help in balancing the outcomes.

The surgeon will however make up the difference by performing more transplant operations, so by legalizing the sale of organs it will in return solve many of the problems we face with the donation process today. Sources: Human Organs, Sale of http://www. idebate. org/debatabase/topic_details. php? topicID=141 Legalizing paid organ donation http://www. researchsea. com/html/article. php/aid/561/cid/6/research/legalizing_paid_organ_donation__pros_and_cons. html Legal Issues in Payment of Living Donors for Solid Organs http://www. abanet. org/irr/hr/spring03/livingdonors. html

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