Organ Transplants Persuasive Essay

1186 Words3 Pages

We are occupants of a progressive age, one where the impossible inches to being possible. We as a species, are innovators who strive toward bettering ourselves and our way of life. Currently, we reside in a society with a magnitude of advances, especially medical advances. We have harnessed the ability to conduct organ transplantation, one of the grandeurs of modern medicine. The sad truth is, the number of patients who require these transplants surpasses the amount of organs available. For instance, in the United States, the amount of Americans waiting for transplants compared to the available organs is about four to one. Right now, there are 122,306 people on the waiting list for an organ (organdonor.gov). All of these people are residing It is clear that this method isn’t working with the amount of organs available being shadowed by the high number of patients in need. By providing a financial incentive, we would be encouraging people to donate their own organs by providing them something in return. For one, organ transplants don’t happen for free. Doctors need to get paid, hospitals need money to provide surgical facilities and recovery rooms, and the transfer of the organs themselves add to that cost (cato.org). Through this, the organ and tissue business makes a pretty big sum, along with the companies that use the organs to produce the medical products used during surgery. With this, it is evident that everyone is getting paid except for the actual people providing the organs. It is no surprise that people don’t donate their organs, because they feel cheated. The financial incentive will motivate people to contribute to the supply of organs significantly. In fact, organ sales are legal in the Philippines as long as the donor recipient is native (forbes.com). Iran uses a free market system in which the “donors” sell their organs to the government, who pays them and also gives them a year of free health insurance (forbes.com). This system has shortened the waiting list tenfold. Therefore, having a system that is completely based on altruism is harmful rather than helpful. Waiting for people to donate organs out of There are some who dwell in the hope that scientific advances will allow us to develop organs in the laboratory. But that day isn’t here. That day might not be here in the near future. Meanwhile, there are thousands of patients waiting to be rescued, to be saved. The death rate of these patients will continue to mass. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, there are about 123,000 people on transplant waiting lists in the US with about 300,000 people in China (Standford.edu). It is practically inhumane to put our hope into future technology while there are people around the world dying. Something has to be done. There has to be a change. The best way to stop this and increase the supply of organs available is to create a system in which the donors are provided some type of payment. In a live debate by NPR over the placement of this system, “those who favored buying and selling organs went from 44 percent to 60 percent. But those opposed inched up only 4 points, from 27 to 31 percent” (npr.com). Therefore, being able to save thousands of lives through the legalization of organ marketing overshadows the risks that come with it. And because of this, one person probably died waiting for an organ while this essay was being

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