The Problem Of Selling Kidneys

Put yourself in one of the over 100,000 people that is waiting for a kidney. Now place yourself near the bottom of the list, while your dialysis is dwindling in effectiveness. Now as your laying in the hospital you have the funds to purchase a kidney, and know that there are many people who are in desperate need for money. Yet, our laws currently prevent the sales of kidneys, and thus, you will be allowed to lay in your hospital bed until you die, while there are safe preventative measures to save your life.

Despite the dramatization above, this is the exact scenario that over100,000 people waiting for a kidney. However, only 17,105 kidney transplants were performed in 2014, of those, only 5,535 came from living donors. This means over 83,000 people went without the transplant they needed for a calendar year, and not everyone has the time available to wait that long (Mayo Clinic). Thus, the discussion on the viability of selling kidneys has had to come up as a possibility to lessen the gap.

Kidneys are very important to humans, because without a properly functioning kidney, humans will struggle to live well. At present, there are many actions that are done by desperate people to sell organs. Kidney sales cases occur when a person sells or transfers a kidney from one individual to another for the purpose of replacing the recipient’s damaged organ. There are thousands of people who would spring at the chance to buy a kidney legally. Also, there are many healthy people who are desperate for money. A safe, legislated procedure of removing a single kidney could satisfy many struggling families needs, and second-handedly, providing opportunities for the donor’s family to live healthily. So long as the procedure is legislated, the risk i...

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...ome people to think of their body as a means to make a profit.

Furthermore, some people argue that the selling of a kidney is a different story because it has a higher risk factor. While that may be true, the government doesn’t prohibit people from participating in other potentially dangerous activities such as skydiving, boxing, and football. Society has encouraged dare devil and potentially life threatening activities for years, when many of the participants stated that their main goal was to provide for their entire families. In the situation of selling kidneys, you have that same situation, but extended to those who aren’t fortunate enough to be uber talented at something, or lacking the opportunities to become successful. It is clear that both ends of the situation provide a need, with both needs being met with the legalization, and legislation, of kidney sales.