An Advanced Way to Solve Organ Shortage
Every year in America, the number of people who need organ transplantations grows, so does the donation waiting list. As the organ shortage is becoming severe, the government is urgently trying to figure out a final solution. Among all current proposals, legalized organ sales have been attracting a lot of attentions. Proponents, like Joanna MacKay, have shown how legalized organ sales would significantly relieve the shortage and benefit both sellers and buyers. However, skeptics like S. M. Rothman and D. J. Rothman, point out several moral and social concerns for the proposal. While legalized organ sales remain open to debate, there are several other solutions which might dispel skeptics’ concerns. In …show more content…
As both MacKay and S. M. Rothman and D. J. Rothman mention, to get an organ from organ sales, people need money. According to S. M. Rothman and D. J. Rothman’s estimation, an organ would cost at least $125,000 in a legalized market. However, $125,000 is not a small number for all families. There are desperate families which are not able to afford such a price. Under such circumstances, the only reason why a patient could survive from organ failure would be the fact that he or she is wealthier and he or she has an access to organ sales which the poor does not have. In other words, the rich would have the privilege to be healthier because they are wealthier. This idea definitely goes against the equity of our society that no matter whether a person is poor or rich, he or she should have the same access to medical care. In MacKay’s analysis, she has shown that the cost of buying an organ could decrease from the current black market’s cost if organ sales were legalized, whereas she does not realize that even after the reduction, the cost would still be an astronomical number a great many of the people. Thus, organ sales do not cover the interests of those poorer …show more content…
Actually, there are various ways to increase organ supply other than organ sales. For instance, the government could reduce barriers like traveling and lodging expenses to attract living donors or the government could introduce the system in Spain that consent is assumed unless people opt out to increase deceased donors. However, the proposal for a government-regulated system to compensate organ donors is special, because not only does it inherit the advantages of organ sales, but also improves the lacking parts. For this donation compensation system, after people donate their organs voluntarily, they would receive a certain amount of money from a government fund as their reward. Ideally, under such a financial incentive, there would be more people willing to donate their organs so that the compensation system could relieve the organ shortage. Then, public medical services could gather the organs and allocate them anonymously to patients in need without any charge. Finally, the waiting list would be shortened
Every year in America, the number of people who need organ transplantations grows, so does the donation waiting list. As the organ shortage is becoming severe, the government is urgently trying to figure out a final solution. Among all current proposals, legalized organ sales have been attracting a lot of attentions. Proponents, like Joanna MacKay, have shown how legalized organ sales would significantly relieve the shortage and benefit both sellers and buyers. However, skeptics like S. M. Rothman and D. J. Rothman, point out several moral and social concerns for the proposal. While legalized organ sales remain open to debate, there are several other solutions which might dispel skeptics’ concerns. In …show more content…
As both MacKay and S. M. Rothman and D. J. Rothman mention, to get an organ from organ sales, people need money. According to S. M. Rothman and D. J. Rothman’s estimation, an organ would cost at least $125,000 in a legalized market. However, $125,000 is not a small number for all families. There are desperate families which are not able to afford such a price. Under such circumstances, the only reason why a patient could survive from organ failure would be the fact that he or she is wealthier and he or she has an access to organ sales which the poor does not have. In other words, the rich would have the privilege to be healthier because they are wealthier. This idea definitely goes against the equity of our society that no matter whether a person is poor or rich, he or she should have the same access to medical care. In MacKay’s analysis, she has shown that the cost of buying an organ could decrease from the current black market’s cost if organ sales were legalized, whereas she does not realize that even after the reduction, the cost would still be an astronomical number a great many of the people. Thus, organ sales do not cover the interests of those poorer …show more content…
Actually, there are various ways to increase organ supply other than organ sales. For instance, the government could reduce barriers like traveling and lodging expenses to attract living donors or the government could introduce the system in Spain that consent is assumed unless people opt out to increase deceased donors. However, the proposal for a government-regulated system to compensate organ donors is special, because not only does it inherit the advantages of organ sales, but also improves the lacking parts. For this donation compensation system, after people donate their organs voluntarily, they would receive a certain amount of money from a government fund as their reward. Ideally, under such a financial incentive, there would be more people willing to donate their organs so that the compensation system could relieve the organ shortage. Then, public medical services could gather the organs and allocate them anonymously to patients in need without any charge. Finally, the waiting list would be shortened