Should Organ and Tissue Donation be Made Mandatory?

Name: Janielle Palmer HIGHLITED TEXT- Added text/ Corrected Text
Teacher: Ms. Price Crossed Out Text- Deleted/ Incorrect Text
Course Code: SNC 2D1-7 Blue Highlite- Sounds odd
Date Due: Thursday April 2nd, 2015

Organ and Tissue Donation Should Be Mandatory Once Deceased

“You are going to need an organ transplant”. Many Canadians face this reality every day. The problem is, not all of them will receive a transplant. According to the Trillium Gift of Life unnecessary comma Network, there are 1597 people in Ontario waiting for transplants but only 116 donors available as of March 26th, 2015 (Trillium Gift of Life Network - Ontario's Organ and Tissue Donation Agency : Public Reporting). Currently there are not There are currently not enough donors to supply the need for organ transplants. 3.1 million of an eligible 11.6 million Ontarians are registered donors as stated by beadonor.ca(You Can Now Register Online to Be an Organ and Tissue Donor). That's That is only 26 percent. Canada has one of the lowest organ donation rates for a first world country (Miller, Kristin). This is why it should be mandatory that all people, once they have died, be organ and tissue donors. This would allow for there to be more donors available more organ donors, more organs to help people and more organs to do research on for research.

One reason that it should be mandatory that all people, once they have died, become organ and tissue donors is so that there will be more organs to do medical research such as learning how organs work or studying diseases. An example of using a donated tissue for studying diseases is the studying of studying Alzheimer’s. Scientists use tissue called “control tissue” to help study diseases (Brain Donation). This is tissue from dead people deceased individuals who did not have the disease. According to the Human Tissue Authority the tissue is used to compare the healthy tissue with the diseases tissue (Brain Donation). In this case, it would be the brain with Alzheimer's and without. The scientists and medical professionals could then use the information from comparing the brains to help find better treatments and even a cure. Without organ donations it becomes harder to study the way disease impact the brain and come up with new treatments. Another reason organ donation should be mandatory is so that scientists can get organs and tissues to study how the human body works. Hundreds of new drugs are tested each year according to iiam.org (Research With Donated Tissues and Organs). With a donor, intestine scientists are able to analyze how the intestine absorbs drugs. This helps them figure out what drugs work and in what which dosage. Without intestine organs, scientists might have to test on live humans, which could have detrimental results. Therefore, all people once they have died should be used as organ and tissue donors. This would provide more organs like the brain to study the effect of diseases and tissues like the intestine to study the way the intestine works, which could help make advancements in the medical field.

Another reason that all people, once they have died, should become organ donors is that it takes organs and tissues that can help others from someone who doesn’t need it and gives it to people who need them. There are many parts that can be used after death and you do not need them after you die. One reason organ donation should be mandatory is that one body can save many lives. According to donatelifeny.org, one donor can save up to 8 lives and improve the lives of up to 50 people with organ and tissue donations (All About Donation). If organ donation was mandatory then there would be more people available for donation and more lives would be saved. Another reason organ donation should be mandatory is that it gives use to your body after you have died. According to memorialpages.co.uk the body starts decomposing right after death, taking anywhere from 8 to 50 years, depending on the type of casket (Facts: What Happens To a Body After Death). That means that your organs decompose too. It would be more beneficial for everyone to use the organs to help someone else live instead of letting them decompose. Therefore all people, once they have died should become organ donors because it gives their body a purpose after death, whether it be by saving or improving the lives of 50+ people or by donating, it instead of letting it decompose in the ground or burning it through cremation.

A third reason that it should be mandatory that all people, once they have died, to become organs donors is that it would increase the amount of organs available. With everyone automatically becoming a donor at death people would have to go through extra effort to opt-in and it would be harder for families to choose to not donate the organs and tissues. One way having all people once dead become organs donors would increase organ and tissue donations is that they would have to opt out instead of opt in. According to a study carried out by the university of Nottingham, the university of stifling and Northumbria university that looked at 48 countries worldwide, 23 with an opt in system and 25 with an opt out system, the countries with an opt in system saw more liver and kidney donors from living and dead donors combined (Organ Donation: Do We Opt-in or Opt-out?). Having an “Opt-out” system led to more organs being donated. An opt in system turns people who would have not made an effort to become a donor one and makes it more work for people to opt-out, leading to more organs donated. Another reason adopting an “Opt-out” system for organ donation is that it helps get around the barrier of people saying no to the donations of their deceased family member. According to doctor Hanto, “the refusal of families to grant permission is a major impediment to organs donation” (AMA Journal of Ethics). Even though it is not required, the OPO involved, also known as the Organ Procurement Organization, usually asks permission of the family even if a donor card is present. With the stress of dealing with the death of someone, they might not be in the best state of mind to make the decision to allow the donations. With an opt out system, it would be required by law for the organs to be donated and it would save the family from making a bad choice in a hard decision while grieving the death of a loved one. Therefore, all people once they have died should become organ donors to increase the amount of people donating donors by including the people who haven't made an effort to donate and reducing the chances for a family to object by making it a law.

In conclusion, it should be mandatory that all people, once they have died, become organ and tissue donors to increase the amount of organs that are available for medical and scientific research, provides people in need with the organs they need and helps add more people to the donor list while lowering the amount of people who don't donate. This would not only increase the amount of organ and tissue donors but it could even provide enough organs and tissues tissue so that there would not be 1597 people on the waiting list and only 116 donors in Ontario (Trillium Gift of Life Network - Ontario's Organ and Tissue Donation Agency : Public Reporting). In 2012, 230 Canadians died while on the transplant wait list (Deceased Organ Donor Potential In in Canada). If there is a way to stop preventable deaths and help other Canadian citizens live longer, we should do it. (first person/ informal)