Analysis Of Joanna Mackay's Essay Organ Sales Will Save Lives

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In Joanna Mackay’s essay “Organ Sales Will Save Lives”, she expresses her ideas towards making it legal to sell and buy organs. Mackay explains that the regulation of organ sales could save thousands of lives annually. I believe that there are many moral issues associated with her point of view. Ethically, I do not think people should be able to buy an organ from another person.

End-stage renal disease is very common among Americans. There are waiting lists miles long of people who are waiting and hoping for a kidney transplant. While the thought of this is sad, it should not change the laws banning organ sales. In Joanna’s essay, she mentions that people would be more inclined to give their organs to those in need if they were getting paid to do so. “If the sale of organs were
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157). She says that the worldwide death that year was around 50,000 (p. 157). When people are diagnosed with organ disease, they are put on a deceased donors list, which means they must wait to receive a new organ from someone dying of old age or accidents. There are over 60,000 people on this list in the U.S. alone and the average wait for a new organ is about ten years (p. 157). The idea behind legalizing the buying and selling of organs would stop this issue. People would have an incentive for selling and therefore more organs would become available to those in need. The deceased donors list is set up in a certain order. Those who were diagnosed first are put on the list first. When a kidney becomes available for transplant, those who were put on the list first become priority. Legalizing the selling of kidneys and other organs alike would defeat the fairness that the list has created. Those who have been waiting for years may not be able to afford the organs, versus those who have not been waiting long may be able to and therefore they would get what they needed

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