Selling Human Organs
TERM PAPER
RESEARCH : Selling Human Organs
ARTICLE 1 :
Should people be allowed to sell their organs? Currently, exchanging organs for money or other "valuable considerations" is illegal, but some members of the medical and business communities would like to change that. One of those is the American Medical Association's influential Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs. Convinced that the balance of moral and ethical concerns favors the ability to sell organs, they would like the laws to change, and the AMA's governing house of delegates is scheduled to vote in June on whether to support a pilot program. The American Society of Transplant Surgeons has already endorsed giving money for cadaveric organs to the families of the deceased.
There are two primary arguments normally offered in favor of allowing the sale of organs. First is the fact that a person's organs belong to them and that a person should be able to do with them as they wish. Second, the shortage of organs available for transplantation is so great that more radical solutions for getting additional organs are needed - and if paying for them will result in more organs, then this is justified.
A number of arguments against selling organs get bandied about, but there are two which lie behind most of the others and which address both of the above arguments. The first involves the concern with how selling organs leads to the commodification of human bodies, and the second is the concern with the exploitation of the poor for the benefit of the rich. These are difficult arguments to explain and are not convincing to everyone, but they cut to the heart of what we want our society ultimately to be like.
As to the issue of commodification, it is not clear that just because the only possible "owner" of an organ is the person in whose body it exists that, therefore, this same person should also be able to sell it to the highest bidder. You own your body as a whole as well, but does that mean you can sell
RESEARCH : Selling Human Organs
ARTICLE 1 :
Should people be allowed to sell their organs? Currently, exchanging organs for money or other "valuable considerations" is illegal, but some members of the medical and business communities would like to change that. One of those is the American Medical Association's influential Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs. Convinced that the balance of moral and ethical concerns favors the ability to sell organs, they would like the laws to change, and the AMA's governing house of delegates is scheduled to vote in June on whether to support a pilot program. The American Society of Transplant Surgeons has already endorsed giving money for cadaveric organs to the families of the deceased.
There are two primary arguments normally offered in favor of allowing the sale of organs. First is the fact that a person's organs belong to them and that a person should be able to do with them as they wish. Second, the shortage of organs available for transplantation is so great that more radical solutions for getting additional organs are needed - and if paying for them will result in more organs, then this is justified.
A number of arguments against selling organs get bandied about, but there are two which lie behind most of the others and which address both of the above arguments. The first involves the concern with how selling organs leads to the commodification of human bodies, and the second is the concern with the exploitation of the poor for the benefit of the rich. These are difficult arguments to explain and are not convincing to everyone, but they cut to the heart of what we want our society ultimately to be like.
As to the issue of commodification, it is not clear that just because the only possible "owner" of an organ is the person in whose body it exists that, therefore, this same person should also be able to sell it to the highest bidder. You own your body as a whole as well, but does that mean you can sell