Why is some human being dying to wait for organ transplants? This is the likely question in many individual’s mind when they are faced with the desperate dilemma. Healthcare is experiencing a shortage in organ donation and the people that need these organs is only growing (Meckler, 2007). Unfortunately, the shortage of organ is taking a toll on individuals waiting to receive their lifesaving organ. Medical advancement made it possible for organ transplants assist individuals that are in desperate need of a new one to continue to live a normal life. In some cases, these individuals waiting for an organ transplant are their only hope of life to continue. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services statistics states 119,000 are on the waiting …show more content…
These individuals do so much more than help people live a healthier life, in most cases, it is literally giving them the gift of life to someone in desperate need of an organ. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services states that one organ donor has the capability to rescue eight lives (2015). A lot of people feel that they are only assisting one precious life, but the reality is they are helping more than one person. The lack of lifesaving organ is not the only problem for the U.S. but around the whole world. There are nearly 7,000 unnecessary deaths each year because people were not able to receive these precious organs they desperately needed to save their lives (Forbes, 2007). Unfortunately, the vast general, people don’t understand how valuable an organ can relate to someone in crucial need of one until they experience themselves this despairing situation. The experience affects an enormous amount of individuals that they have a passionate to give something in return to the community. Individuals love ones also has an enormous amount of influence from this desperate experience and are more willingly open to organ donation. This effect is meaningful to them because it is something that most individuals took for granted and has a lot more meaning to someone that is patiently waiting to receive their desperate need of a miracle of life. Furthermore, organ donation is …show more content…
Ultimately, Organ donation is ethical because of the shortage of lifesaving organs, promotes giving something back to the community, and the best of all it’s a gift of life. Organ donation is considerably necessary in need to be addressed to make a difference in peoples ' lives around the world. The breakthrough in the demand of organ donation is greatly needed to guarantee individuals to save the lives or progress in receiving the benefit of organ transplant (Hyde, Wihardjo, & White, 2012). Most people don’t realize were organ transplants come from and how important organ donations means to a person in need. The fact of the matter is that organs are useless once we have passed away, to make an enormous impact on others around us we have to take that step and become an organ donor. Most individuals have nothing to lose but to gain a life by being an organ donor. Miller (1987) concludes that the answer to the crucial deficiency of donor organ is the cooperation of expressing society in the community. As well as, the effort of instructive information that clarifies both patient and medical profession to take action and prepare the way for future donors to take place in the cycle of life by renewing the organs. Therefore, it is necessary to look beyond all myths that are implemented in today’s society, organ donation is very much imperative in today’s
When viewing organ donation from a moral standpoint we come across many different views depending on the ethical theory. The controversy lies between what is the underlying value and what act is right or wrong. Deciding what is best for both parties and acting out of virtue and not selfishness is another debatable belief. Viewing Kant and Utilitarianism theories we can determine what they would have thought on organ donation. Although it seems judicious, there are professionals who seek the attention to be famous and the first to accomplish something. Although we are responsible for ourselves and our children, the motives of a professional can seem genuine when we are in desperate times which in fact are the opposite. When faced with a decision about our or our children’s life and well being we may be a little naïve. The decisions the patients who were essentially guinea pigs for the first transplants and organ donation saw no other options since they were dying anyways. Although these doctors saw this as an opportunity to be the first one to do this and be famous they also helped further our medical technology. The debate is if they did it with all good ethical reasoning. Of course they had to do it on someone and preying upon the sick and dying was their only choice. Therefore we are responsible for our own health but when it is compromised the decisions we make can also be compromised.
Sally Satel’s argument in Death’s Waiting List, states that there is an extreme lack of organ donors in this society. “70,000 Americans are waiting for kidneys, according to The United Network for Organ Sharing” (132 Satel) and “only about 16,000 people received one last year. “ In big cities, where the ratio of acceptable organs to needy patients is worst, the wait is five to eight years and is expected to double by 2010 ” (132 Satel). There is no reason why the wait should be this long because any one can be an organ donor and Satel does a great job of explaining the benefits further in her essay.
Organ donation is a key role in saving thousands of American lives. Without donation hundreds of people would die from improperly functioning or failing organs not strong enough to keep them alive. Organ donation is the process of giving an organ or a part of an organ for the purpose of transplantation into another person. Organs can be donated from both living and deceased donors, and can be donated from all ages. Unfortunately not all Americans are aware of organ donation and out of the ones that are, several are uncomfortable with donating for several reasons. This is causing organ shortages not just in the US, but all over the world. These shortages have led to the voluntary selling of one’s own organs, otherwise known as Organ Trafficking.
Now imagine if it were you, that needed a liver, heart, or other organ transplant. You want to live to see so much more in life, but you did not get on the list in time and there is a shortage in organ donors. You must say good bye to life, your loved ones and every thing else. This is not a good thing to imagine, yet people die everyday with this feeling.
Currently, there are thousands of people waiting for a type of organ transplant. Transplantation is an amazing advance in modern medicine. The need for organ donors is much larger than the number of people who sign up to donate their organs. “Every day in the United States 17 people die waiting for an organ and more than 80,000 men, women, and children await life-saving organ transplants” (The Cleveland Clinic Foundation). Choosing to be an organ donor is a vital resource for patients waiting for these vital transplants. However, organ donation has many benefits which are unfortunately clouded by misconceptions.
There are many good reasons to give back to the community, but with the shortage of lifesaving organs being an organ donor is a perfectly good reason to assist someone in desperate need of a miracle. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services states that 119,000 individuals are on the waiting list for a transplant, plus every ten minutes some is added to that very same list. As a result, 22 people die each day waiting for their transplant (2015). These statistics are a huge number to take into account. People waiting helplessly for a miracle to happen, and most individuals basically need to do is take action in becoming an organ donor. Individuals also have to take a look at the criteria to even be on the waiting list. People would have to be in the end stage organ failure and have seen a transplant surgeon to be even considered. Here in the United States the system they use is for one to be even considered if by the urgency of the need, their blood type, how long on the waiting list, and the best match (Clemmons, 2009). No wonder there is such a need of donors because not only they have to address the shortage of organs, but as well oneself would have to meet these criteria. People must not get discouraged in donating their precious organs, they should also come together as a community and bring awareness of the demand of organ donors needed to address these issues. The more
Recent reports of public figures receiving life-saving transplants have brought renewed attention to the scarcity of organs and the importance of organ transplants. Although more transplants are being performed in the United States each year the transplant waiting list continues to grow. It has been considered that the decrease in organ donors is due to the unsuccessful measures taken by health care professionals. This is a limited view of the matter because health care professionals are not directly responsible for the policies and other guidelines for procuring organs. The general population does not have the interest of suffering individuals at heart when it comes to donation. Instead, the interest lies with respecting individual autonomy and dead bodies. I strongly believe that the attention needs to focus on the next-of-kin or health care proxies communication with an individual who wants to be a donor. Health care proxies are designated individuals who speak on one's behalf, and agree to put forward the type of medical intervention one wishes to have when one is no longer able to speak for oneself.
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
Since the 1970s, organ transplants have been in trouble with over 10 Americans dying daily while waiting on the transplant list (Fentiman, 1998). Organ donation can bring about extensive ethical matters, but humans can choose and should choose to donate organs and tissues. Organs from living donors are lung, liver, intestine, pancreas, heart, and kidney (Cook, 2006). Postmortem, the entire body can be donated and used to save the life of another. In either case, the ability and/or right to donate human organs in the United States is a moral responsibility as humans because it saves lives, decreases the chance of organ sales on the black market, and aids in furthering scientific research.
Organ donation and distribution to patients in need is a highly controversial issue that is one of the main concerns of the subject of bioethics. Many ethical questions arise when a possible organ is available to use from a person, whether they are alive or dead, in order to save the life of another. These include whether it is “right” to ask the family of someone who just died for use of the subject’s organs and if it is technically considered consent if the family does agree to donate an organ from a loved one during this tragic time in their lives. Another question that naturally arises is how to distribute the scarce amount of organs available to the large population that needs them. Many different moral principles come up on the issue
“Don’t take your organs to heaven with you. Heaven knows we need them here.” That is a popular quote used to help encourage organ donation. Most people think that organ donation is a difficult subject to discuss. This is mainly because there are two sides to organ donation, the people who receive the organ, and the family that is suffering a severe loss. The purpose of this project is to explore the different problems caused by organ transplants. I’ve never had a family member affected by the shortage of organs in the world. However, I have had a loved one pass away and donate some of their tissues. It was a hard decision for my family to make, but we all knew that their donation could really help someone in need.
Between six-thousand and seven-thousand people die every year because they are on the waiting list for a necessary vital organ. That is an average of 18 people a day (“Why Donate?” Organdonor.gov.us.). They do not die from heart attacks, stroke, getting shot, or car accidents. They died because they were on the waiting list for an organ donation. There is a huge gap between the number of organ donors needed and the actual organ donors. There is a shortage of organs for medical studies too. Organ donation is completely necessary in the medical field. It is an essential factor in helping save lives, letting future healthcare providers learn about the human body and become very skilled in their professions, and assisting researchers
One of the most important and prevalent issues in healthcare discussed nowadays is the concern of the organ donation shortage. As the topic of organ donation shortages continues to be a growing problem, the government and many hospitals are also increasingly trying to find ways to improve the number of organ donations. In the United States alone, at least 6000 patients die each year while on waiting lists for new organs (Petersen & Lippert-Rasmussen, 2011). Although thousands of transplant candidates die from end-stage diseases of vital organs while waiting for a suitable organ, only a fraction of eligible organ donors actually donate. Hence, the stark discrepancy in transplantable organ supply and demand is one of the reasons that exacerbate this organ donation shortage (Parker, Winslade, & Paine, 2002). In the past, many people sought the supply of transplantable organs from cadaver donors. However, when many ethical issues arose about how to determine whether someone is truly dead by either cardiopulmonary or neurological conditions (Tong, 2007), many healthcare professionals and transplant candidates switched their focus on obtaining transplantable organs from living donors instead. As a result, in 2001, the number of living donors surpassed the number of cadaver donors for the first time (Tong, 2007).
In this paper I will be using the normative theory of utilitarianism as the best defensible approach to increase organ donations. Utilitarianism is a theory that seeks to increase the greatest good for the greatest amount of people (Pense2007, 61). The utilitarian theory is the best approach because it maximizes adult organ donations (which are the greater good) so that the number of lives saved would increase along with the quality of life, and also saves money and time.
...en through the example of Nickolas Green, when you donate organs you not only save one life, but often numerous. Your body has so many vital organs and tissues that can be donated and given to many different people. For many of these people, what you donate to them, can be a matter of life or death. If they don?t receive a donation soon enough, their time will run out and they will pass away. By donating organs you are giving of your body, something that will never again by seen after death. You are making the morally correct decision to help others. It seems we are all brought up to help others and give of yourself, and what better way to do so then by donating of your organs.