Should governments allow individuals to sell their extra kidneys on the market? Today, more than 100,000 US citizens are on the active waitlist for kidney organ transplantation is one of the main hallmarks of modern medicine. However, it is a miracle tragically out of reach for thousands of individuals whose lives can be saved. The situation has triggered a recent debate about what was once impossible−paying participants to donate organs. In that context, therefore, governments must not criminalize the sale of human organs; instead they should regulate it. People should not die; they should be saved.
The very concept that decriminalization could sound galling to most people, but should not, particularly since the recent plethora of research demonstrates it would save lives (Clark, 2013). Consistent with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,18 individuals demise daily awaiting organ donors, and one organ donor could save eight lives. Incidents, where patients succumb to their ailments in the U.S. because people cannot find replacements organ in time, have become the norm. Through enabling the trading of any human organ, in which individuals might select to sell them in exchange for cash, this can create a fast platform towards saving the many lives at stake. Through promoting the market for selling organs, it could also result in great deal reduction of the number of deaths and suffering.
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With the sale of organs banned in nearly most countries, fewer people are willing to part with a body organ, for instance, kidney for free. According to the National Kidney Foundation (n.d.) as of 2016, over 100,000 individuals waited for kidney transplants in the U.S.
However, there are serious worries that allowing people to sell their organs would lead to the poor and vulnerable in the society coming under severe pressure to diminish their financial problems. This calls for the regulation of the market so that the black market demand in organs, if not devastated, is at least gradually decreased (Gregory, 2011). Furthermore, as with illegalizing certain types of today drug, forcing the market underground is the key to making it synonymous with violence and criminality. The WHO projects that the black market is accountable for one-fifth of illegal kidney transplantations globally.
Some suggest that the selling of any body organ is ethically wrong and devalues the human being, but this a notion professed by healthy and wealthy people. These morals hold no absolute truths. Individuals must safeguard and assist the underprivileged and the poor, but it is sad to let personal ideals cloud the issue at hand.
In lawful organ transplants, everyone gains except the donor. The healthcare providers are compensated for the surgical procedures; patients receive new kidneys, but the donor gets nothing. No doubt the donors will have a warm, inspiring feeling related to assisting fellow humans, but this not sufficient enough of a reward for most individuals to donate a part of their body. From the perspective of an idealist, the average individual would be altruistic enough to part with his kidney without raising eyebrows (Gregory, 2013). The real world, nevertheless, is run by money. Both sperm and egg donors are paid, but other people are expected to part with an entire organ for no monetary reward. If the selling of organs in the market were decriminalized, individuals would have more of an incentive to assist in saving the lives of strangers.
Counter Argument
Proponents of selling organs state that monetary gains could motivate individuals to donate and must be a natural part of a free trade system. Many people may hold that decriminalizing the sale of organs is beneficial. Nonetheless, organ markets must remain outlawed in the U.S., as selling is unethical, supports unhealthy greed, and debases human life. There is a substantial economic motivation for the less-fortunate to give away their organs at a fee yet non for the affluent to do so, for instance. Similarly, the possibility of intimidation and exploitation, particular for the underprivileged individual is worth consideration (Delmonico & Capron, 2015). Poverty might be a very bad thing to the point where an individual will donate his organ for money. Therefore, in this case, there is a disequilibrium in the decision making. Another deplorable aspect of unfairness is the fact that rich people have the means to afford these precious organs, but the less fortunate cannot.
Besides, there are ethical questions concerning the likelihood of human slavery and organ harvesting. Humans have the ability of much worst things, and one would think that taking advantage of other human beings for the organs is not beyond some individuals imagination. As such, it would result in criminal conduct in those who are desperate enough to extort or blackmail someone into selling their organs. This has stained the name of organ transplantation and amounted to adverse clinical consequences (Delmonico & Capron, 2015). All over the world, in country after country−it is the underprivileged individuals who give up their organs as a way out of their poverty, generally just temporary. Overall, the impoverished individuals in the society have less of an opportunity to procure the expensive organs than the affluent, who have a rich inclination to coerce the less fortunate to sell owing to their economic hardships.
There is also no evidence showing legalizing organ sales would end all the abuses related to the black market. For instance, in Iran legal sales have not improved the issue of black market, that is, the exploitation of underprivileged individuals as organ suppliers for middle- and upper-class recipients. Anxiety about such exploitation by rich people is already adverse across Asia.
The sale of organs must not be decriminalized as it debases human life. In essence, permitting the trade of any human organ would lead to the commodification of parts of the human body. Likewise, commodities force people to be under the notion that cadavers are purely products and would ultimately result in the other way, which is the devastation of social values. Since today there is no legal market for the organ transplant in the United States, with the demand increasing gradually owing to the new medical advances, the problem will only get worse.
Commodification can reduce as well as devastate the practice of altruism. Thus, legalizing the sale of organs devalues human life and converts them into products. In summary, the organ market must remain criminalized since it just devalues human life, and supports unhealthy greed. The society has a dramatically powerful interpretation as to why the trafficking of organs for financial gain ought to be allowed.
References
National Kidney Foundation. (n.d.). Organ Donation and Transplantation Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.kidney.org/news/newsroom/factsheets/Organ-Donation-and- Transplantation-Stats
Gregory, A. (2011, Nov 9). Why Legalizing Organ Sales Would Help to Save Lives, End Violence. The Atlantic . Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2011/11/why-legalizing-organ-sales-would- help-to-save-lives-end-violence/248114/
Clark, C. (2013, Jun 13). Selling Your Organs: Should it be Legal? Do You Own Yourself? Forbes Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/marciaclark/2013/06/13/selling- your- organs-should-it-be-legal-do-you-own-yourself/#3b053bb47281
Delmonico, F., & Capron, A. (2015, Dec 29). Our body parts shouldn’t be for sale. Washington Post . Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in- theory/wp/2015/12/29/our-body-parts-shouldnt-be-for-sale/?utm_term=.be19f393ec9a\
