Organ Donation: The Right To Donating Organs

Ninety percent of Americans support organ donation; however, only thirty percent know the essential steps to donate organs (National Kidney Foundation). Medical providers view this statistic as a reason to offer a new process for donating organs: creating an enterprise of organs. An organ market inspires healthy patients to donate organs by offering money in exchange of organs. If individuals benefit from donating organs, more organs will be donated, resulting in more transplants. However, a business centered on organs is not ethical; donors should provide organs for the well-being of the people, not money. Consider the suffering that those requiring transplants face; they should not additionally agonize about affording treatments. Rather than

Those willing to offer the most money for their health would not be placed on a waiting list. They could take action towards a healthier life regardless of how long they suffered. However, increasing prices to benefit the purveyor, causes the less wealthy patients to suffer medically and economically. Whether near death or in the early stages of treatment, every patient holds the right to medical care. Currently, a kidney transplant costs approximately $262,900 including costs for hospital admission and physicians (Transplant Living). A London news source reported, “... a waiter willing to sell his kidney… for about $194,000 … wanted the money to buy a house for his family in Pakistan and to start a business” (UPI Newstrack 4). By purchasing a kidney through an illicit enterprise, a patient would spend a cumulative $456,900 for procedure expenses and the organ price. Although the patient eliminates time spent waiting for a transplant, the expenditure becomes enormously inflated. Those selling organs transform the business into a means of living; relying on the failing health of others to benefit. The ethical advantage focuses on improving the health of the injured, not the financial state of oneself. Another news source, The Journal of Medical Ethics, publishes articles concerning the business of organ transplants. Professor John Harris, bioethicist, advocates, “Prices would have to be high enough to attract people into the marketplace but dialysis, and other alternative care, does not come cheap” (8). Harris understands that individuals neglect interest in the business when selling organs solely for altruistic purposes. However, when the concern for profit outweighs the attention of the ailing patients, the practice becomes unethical. The sick deserve to fight towards their healthiest life; however, an