Legalize Organ Transplants

In many foreign countries, it is legal to sell organs to transplant patients. How many live could be saved if this was allowed in the United States? An average of eighteen people die each day waiting for transplants that can’t happen because due to the shortage of donated organs. Every life that could be saved is extremely important and an effort needs to be made to preserve these lives. The sale of human organs should be legalized, solving the shortage of transplant organs in the United States. The history of organ transplants date back to the 1930’s. In 1936 Yu Yu Voronoy, a Ukrainian doctor, transplanted the first human kidney. The patient later died due to rejection. The first successful kidney transplant was in 1954 when surgeons used a twin brother as the donor. Since the organ and donor were genetically identical, it was a success. In 1984 the US Congress passed the National Organ Transplant Act in order to watch over ethical issues and figure out what to do with the Nation’s organ shortage. This law outlawed the sale of human organs. At this time, over 100,000 people were on the national waiting list. Today, more than 122,344
A common argument is that we will be using the poor as “spare body parts” and that this practice is a violation of human rights. It’s the donor’s body. No one is forcing the donor to give up body parts. What the donor chooses to do with body parts is the donor’s business and nobody else’s. If a person his own body, then rich or poor, he should have the right to sell his organs if he chooses (Clark). It truly should be the donor’s choice, and nobody else’s. For the government to tell someone they cannot sell a part of their own body, is against human rights more than anything else. All the evidence clearly points to legalizing the sale of human