Discussion Essay Organ Donation
Organ donation is the process of removal and transplantation of organs from donor to recipient. It has been arguing in the society whether or not it should be compulsory for everyone to donate one of their organs when they die. Although it is obvious that organ donation saves more people’s lives and decreases organ trafficking, it could be insensitive to cultural beliefs or donor’s family and human rights.
Firstly, it is often argued that organ donation should be compulsory to save more people’s lives. According to ‘The National Network of Organ Donors’, each day, there are 19 people who die while they are waiting for transplant because of the lack of available donated organs. A clear solution is the increasing of the supply of organs from donor but volunteers are not enough to make a difference. For this reason, if organ donation be compulsory, more and more people’s lives can be saved.
Secondly, now, there are many black markets trading human organs which can be decreased by compulsory organ donation. For instance, an estimated that 10,000 black market operations relating human organs happen every year (Campbell & Davidson, 2012). Most of them are trade in kidneys, because humans can live normally with one kidney and the sellers are poor, even there are some Chinese youths sell their kidney to buy the new iPad (Campbell & Davidson, 2012). This unethical issue can be reduced by compulsory organ donation that more people can transplant organs from donors and it makes difficulties for the illegal organs trading.
On the other hand, compulsory organ donation could be insensitive to cultural beliefs or donor’s family. There still have some religions such as Shinto and Gypsy which prohibit organ donation. For example, Shinto supports that interfering with a cadaver will bring unlucky things (Organ Donation in Shinto, 2009). This means they prohibit the taking organs from donors and also would not accept an organ transplanted (Organ Donation
Firstly, it is often argued that organ donation should be compulsory to save more people’s lives. According to ‘The National Network of Organ Donors’, each day, there are 19 people who die while they are waiting for transplant because of the lack of available donated organs. A clear solution is the increasing of the supply of organs from donor but volunteers are not enough to make a difference. For this reason, if organ donation be compulsory, more and more people’s lives can be saved.
Secondly, now, there are many black markets trading human organs which can be decreased by compulsory organ donation. For instance, an estimated that 10,000 black market operations relating human organs happen every year (Campbell & Davidson, 2012). Most of them are trade in kidneys, because humans can live normally with one kidney and the sellers are poor, even there are some Chinese youths sell their kidney to buy the new iPad (Campbell & Davidson, 2012). This unethical issue can be reduced by compulsory organ donation that more people can transplant organs from donors and it makes difficulties for the illegal organs trading.
On the other hand, compulsory organ donation could be insensitive to cultural beliefs or donor’s family. There still have some religions such as Shinto and Gypsy which prohibit organ donation. For example, Shinto supports that interfering with a cadaver will bring unlucky things (Organ Donation in Shinto, 2009). This means they prohibit the taking organs from donors and also would not accept an organ transplanted (Organ Donation
References: Campbell, D., & Davidson, N. (2012, May 28). Illegal kidney trade booms as new organ is 'sold every hour '. The Guardian. Retrieved May 30, 2012, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/27/kidney-trade-illegal-operations-who?INTCMP=SRCH Nevada Donor Network, INC. (n.d.). The Truth About Donation. Retrieved June 3, 2012, from http://www.nvdonor.org/index.php/understanding-donations/facts/ Organ Donation in Shinto. (2009, September 16). Organ donation. Retrieved June 3, 2012, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/shinto/shintoethics/organs.shtml#findoutmore Statistics. (n.d.). The National Network of Organ Donors. Retrieved June 3, 2012, from http://www.thenationalnetworkoforgandonors.org/statistics.html