Waiting for a Kidney

978 Words2 Pages

Waiting for a Kidney

In the United States there are 122,365 people waiting for organs to be donated; of those 100,218, are waiting for a kidney transplant. The transplant list is so long that some patients wait up to 10 years to receive a kidney. These patients wait in agony for a kidney they may never receive. An article by Barbara Mantel affirms that the most common reasons for kidney transplant include: Hypertension, Diabetes mellitus, kidney stones, Inherited Kidney disease, and inflammatory effects of drug therapy for other diseases. The U.S Department of Health and Human Services records show that in 2012 there were 30% more deceased Kidney donors than living donors. The difference between living and deceased kidney donor makes a big difference. Explore transplant argues that, “Living donor transplant last longer than deceased donor transplant because the kidney is removed from a healthy patient as opposed to a dead one” (“Deceased and living Donation, Explore transplant”). They also argue that living donor transplants last 15-20, while deceased donor transplant last 10-15 years. This can be the deciding factor in whether a patient may need another kidney transplant in the future. Statistics show that only 30 to 40 percent of Americans designate themselves as organ donors on their driver’s license (Organ donor.gov), but what about the other millions of Americans, who poses healthy functioning kidneys? That percent of Americans leave the decision in their families' hands, once they die. However, not all families allow their loved ones to donate their viable kidneys. This type of decision may end the life the life of another human being. To avoid this type of situation and ...

... middle of paper ...

...e 21 years old and are mentally stable are automatically included under HOTA (Chew). Those who do not want to be included in HOTA must opt out before they are considered brain dead, after that doctors are legally allowed to take all of their viable organs. However, all those who opt out have less priority on the transplant waiting list (Chew). Meaning, that if they ever need a transplant their name automatically is at the bottom of the list. HOTAs main purpose is to boost the number of organ donations. This law also allows for payments to be made to living donors as reimbursements (Chew). Since this law has come into effect experts claim that donation rates in Singapore are very low (Chew). The National Organ Transplant figures that between 2004 to last year transplant of kidney went from 269 to 123. Proving that HOTA was not effective in boosting organ donations.

Open Document