Facts About Organ Donation and Organ Transplantation

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Recommended: Ethical issues surrounding organ transplantation

In life, there is one thing that is inevitable and unavoidable. The subject is often avoided because of fear. Death is universal. Every day eighteen people will die in the United States of America waiting for an organ transplant. Organ Transplantation involves the giving of a healthy body part from either a living or dead individual to another person. (Fundukian, Organ, p674-678) Medical illnesses do not discriminate. It doesn’t matter about wealth, race, religion, or even age. The types of illnesses causing and leading to organ failure are heart disease, cirrhosis, cystic fibrosis, diabetes, hepatitis, kidney disease, and hypertension. Currently medical professionals are able to transplant kidneys, livers, lungs, hearts, pancreas, intestines, cornea, skin, bone, cartilage, tendons, ligaments, veins, heart valves, and the middle ear. Before exploring the history of organ transplantation, we first must understand some important terminology. Some of the important groups intricate to organ transplantation are the recipients, donors, transplant team, United Network Organ Sharing (UNOS), and Organ Procurement Transplantation Network (OPTN). First, recipients are individuals whose organs are failing and received a donated organ from either a living donor or deceased donor. A living donor is a person who donates such organs as kidney, liver, lung, intestine, pancreas, and bone marrow. The second type of donor is a deceased donor. A deceased donor is an individual who is declared brain dead and the decision is made by the individual’s wishes or the individual’s family, a donor family as there are often referred to. The organs that can be donated by deceased donor are kidney, liver, lungs, heart, pancreas, intestines, corn... ... middle of paper ... ...f The Ethics Of Presumed Consent And A Proposal Based On Required Response”. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. June 30, 1993. Donate Life America. “Understanding Donation” Donate Life America. Richmond, VA. 2013. Web. Fundukian, Laurie J., ed. Anti-Rejection Drugs: The Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine. Detroit, MI: Cengage Learning, 2011. ---Organ Donation and Transplantation, The Gale Encyclopedia of Public Health. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, Cengage Learning, 2013. Gift of Life Donor Program. “Busting Myths about Organ Donation” Gift of Life. Philadelphia, PA. Web. Lupkin, Sydney. “Organ Donation Rates: How The US Stacks Up”. ABC Good Morning America. June 2013. Web. United States Department of Health & Human Services. “Data Waiting List” Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. Health Resource and Service Administration. Rockville, MD. Web.

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