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Clayton Vossler
Miss Orsich
Research Paper
19 February 2014
A Market for Organs Imagine being the parent of a four year old girl who needs a heart transplant. If she receives a heart, she will live a long, healthy life. Without it, she may not live through the year. A parent would do everything and anything to make sure she received a new heart. Put her on a waiting list, a year seems like plenty of time. But the weeks slowly turn into months, and months turn into a year and the baby girl loses her battle. It's hard to believe that a year isn't enough time for a donor to be found. Sadly, this circumstance happens too often, as the exchange of organ's for money or trade is illegal in the United States. But if that law was changed, maybe the little girl wouldn't have died. An average of 18 people die per day waiting for an organ transplant that they cannot receive because of a shortage of donated organs (“Selling Your Organs” 1). T.M. Wilksinson explains in his book Ethics and Acquisition of Organs that donating an organ can be one of the most risky types of procedures. Not because it is dangerous, but because of the chance that the organ may not properly function in the patient (Wilkinson 60). Many people are scared to become an organ donor due to the negative stereotypes behind it. Although there are risks, if people had the option to sell their organs rather than donate them, the number of deaths from a shortage of organs could decrease significantly. Many people are immediately swayed away by the thought of becoming an organ donor due to the stories that they have heard about it. Many of people think that donating a kidney, for example, is an over-the-top sacrifice, but the procedure is actually very safe and, for the most part, painless. The donor spends three days in the hospital and within a month is able to return to work and participate in all normal activities again. Only about 1 in every 3000 people die from a kidney transplant procedure
Miss Orsich
Research Paper
19 February 2014
A Market for Organs Imagine being the parent of a four year old girl who needs a heart transplant. If she receives a heart, she will live a long, healthy life. Without it, she may not live through the year. A parent would do everything and anything to make sure she received a new heart. Put her on a waiting list, a year seems like plenty of time. But the weeks slowly turn into months, and months turn into a year and the baby girl loses her battle. It's hard to believe that a year isn't enough time for a donor to be found. Sadly, this circumstance happens too often, as the exchange of organ's for money or trade is illegal in the United States. But if that law was changed, maybe the little girl wouldn't have died. An average of 18 people die per day waiting for an organ transplant that they cannot receive because of a shortage of donated organs (“Selling Your Organs” 1). T.M. Wilksinson explains in his book Ethics and Acquisition of Organs that donating an organ can be one of the most risky types of procedures. Not because it is dangerous, but because of the chance that the organ may not properly function in the patient (Wilkinson 60). Many people are scared to become an organ donor due to the negative stereotypes behind it. Although there are risks, if people had the option to sell their organs rather than donate them, the number of deaths from a shortage of organs could decrease significantly. Many people are immediately swayed away by the thought of becoming an organ donor due to the stories that they have heard about it. Many of people think that donating a kidney, for example, is an over-the-top sacrifice, but the procedure is actually very safe and, for the most part, painless. The donor spends three days in the hospital and within a month is able to return to work and participate in all normal activities again. Only about 1 in every 3000 people die from a kidney transplant procedure