Tabarrok Organ Shortage

Analytical Essay In the essay “A Moral Solution to the Organ Shortage” by Alexander T. Tabarrok, Tabarrok presents the idea of paying organ donors and, or, only allowing registered organ donors to be able to receive an organ, in other words be compensated for the donation to help end the shortage. The essay’s thesis is, “Despite a prominent advertising campaign with Michael Jordan as spokesperson, and a national campaign of pastors, rabbis and other clergy supporting donation, the supply of donors remains far below that necessary to save everyone on the waiting list.” Tabarrok supports his claims to end the organ shortage through logical appeal. He provides factual evidence on how many people are on the waiting list and how many people

Tabarrok’s arguments can be easily refuted by any person who has experienced organ donation, or someone who has a strong religious background, by stating it would be ethically wrong to exclude someone from a lifesaving transplant, just because they weren’t organ donors originally themselves. Tabarrok’s strength in his essay, is the fact that he did not add a personal experience to the piece. With Tabarrok not adding a personal experience, it creates a different tone to the essay, it allows the essay to come from a logical standpoint rather than emotional, which ultimately could make the reader feel sorry for Tabarrok, rather than reading the piece in its true form. Tabarrok tries to captivate the non-organ donor audience, yet in all reality the essay grabs the readers who are organ donors and who have experienced organ donation. Although his attempt at trying to persuade the audience of non-organ donors failed, he does achieve his goal of persuading readers to become an organ donor, to help end the shortage by providing solutions to the cause, and showing the readers potentially what they could be missing if they do not become an organ donor.
In the end, Tabarrok’s approach to the problem, is effective. Tabarrok’s choice in excluding emotion in his piece helps in his case, since the emotional experience of organ donation would drag the reader away from Tabarrok’s main idea of finding a solution to end the shortage. The essay