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Organ Sales are Beneficial

David B. Weidemann

College of Business, Grand Canyon University

ENG-106: English Composition II

Jim Higuera

May 11, 2022

Organ Sales are Beneficial

Every day, 17 people die waiting for an organ (2022). There is a shortage of transplant organs available. According to a 2014 study, there are over 123,000 people in the United States waiting for organ transplants. To get a kidney transplant, the wait time was over three and a half years (Wilkinson, 2015). A living donor is required to be 18 years old and must be in good mental and physical health (2022). If a donor could receive compensation for giving up an organ, more people may be keen to give up one of theirs. Organ sales in the United States would be beneficial because it would increase organ supply, decrease transplant tourism, and reduce the donor waiting list.

A person can live with only one kidney without having a risk to their health (Meckler, 2007). There is approximately 70,000 people waiting for kidney transplants a year and less than 20,000 kidney transplants are preformed annually (Meckler, 2007). That leaves at least 50,000 people a year waiting to receive a kidney. Kidneys from live donors are generally more healthy than dead donors and can last 20 years or more in some instances (Satel, 2006). If compensation is legalized, the United States could see more people willing to give up a kidney. The average cost of a kidney transplant over $150,000 (Becker & Elias, 2007). That is a hefty sum of money for most people. If even half of that was offered to give up a kidney, many people may toss around the idea. There are poor people who may need money and nearly $100,000 can be life changing. But not only poor people would be the ones to sell an organ. People who have lost a loved one due to a failing organ may wish to give life to another. On the other hand, /someone who may not have much time left in the world may want to sell an organ to leave money behind for their children or loved ones or to even cover the cost of their funeral expenses. Many reasons exist why someone might want to sell their organs, and with the rise of “my body, my choice”, why shouldn’t they be able to? With the potential to make some money for whatever reason, that will increase the number of kidneys or organs available to be transplanted.

Rich people have the money to buy organs. Since the sale of organs is currently not legal in the United States and many other countries, people who have the money travel to various Asian countries to seek organ transplants. This is known as transplant tourism. According to an article, the World Health Organization (WHO) says that the purchasing of a kidney is exploiting the poor (Ritter, 2008). That same article goes on to say that the Philippians have banned kidney transplants from patients from overseas. On the contrary, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand are welcoming medical tourism. Singapore have created state of the art hospitals to attract transplant tourism to help boost their economy (Ritter, 2008). If organ sales were made legal, people would not have to travel across the world to find a suitable organ.

The wait list to receive is kidney is more than three years currently in the United States. With donors being the only way to get kidneys at the moment, that produces long waiting lists.

A counter-argument can be made that legalizing the sale of organs in the United States would increase illegal activities such as kidnappings and organ harvesting.

Conclusion

The legalization of organ sales would benefit the United States. More people willing to sell their organs would make more kidneys available to be transplanted. People would not have to travel to far away lands to get an organ that they need.

References

Becker, G. S., & Elías, J. J. (2007). Introducing Incentives in the Market for Live and Cadaveric Organ Donations. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 21(3), 3–24. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1257/jep.21.3.3

Campion-Vincent, V. (1997). Organ theft narratives. Western Folklore, 56(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.2307/1500384

Meckler, L. (2007, November 14). Kidney shortage inspires a radical idea: Organ sales. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved May 11, 2022, from https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB119490273908090431

Organ donation statistics. Donate Life America. (2022, February 25). Retrieved May 13, 2022, from https://www.donatelife.net/statistics/

Ritter, P. (2008, August 19). Legalizing the organ trade? Time. Retrieved May 11, 2022, from http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1833858,00.html

Satel, S. (2006). organs for Sale. American (19328117). Retrieved May 11, 2022, from https://lopes.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=24855477&site=ehost-live&scope=site&custid=s8333196&groupid=main&profile=ehost.

Schweda, M., & Schicktanz, S. (2009). The “spare parts person”? Conceptions of the human body and their implications for public attitudes towards organ donation and organ sale. Philosophy, Ethics & Humanities in Medicine, 4, 1–10. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1186/1747-5341-4-4

Wilkinson, S. (2015, October 22). The sale of human organs. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved May 11, 2022, from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/organs-sale/

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