Ethical Issues With Organ Donation

Over the years, organ transplantation has become one of the most important achievements of the health care system in the world. One organ donor can save up to 8 lives (“All About Donation”). Each year, 500,000 people in the United States are saved through organ donation. However, the waiting list for transplantation is also increasing with time. According to the U.S Department of Health & Human Services, an average of 21 people die each day from the lack of available organs for transplant. Therefore, one challenge in organ transplantation, which has remained for a long time, is to overcome the shortage of suitable organ donors. In the article “Organ Donation” in the CQ Researcher, Barbara Mantel questions whether we should pay donors to increase …show more content…
People can be sentenced for up to five years if they use transplantable organs for money purposes. However, black-market organ trafficking exists under the law. In the article “ Organ Trafficking: An International Crime Infrequently Punished”, Susan Scutti reports that 10% of 106,879 organ transplant operations is performed with illegally harvested organs in 2010. Many patients are desperately of waiting for a transplant, so they decide to get a living organ from a black-market. “These unregulated systems can’t protect either organ donors or recipients. Therefore, the government should have an official payment program for organ donation, so they can control the organ trafficking. In the article “Should We Pay Donors to Increase The Supply of Organs For Transplantation”, Arthur J Matas suggests that the government or insurance companies provide “a fixed package of life insurance, long term health care insurance, and reimbursement for travel expense and time for out of work” for organ donors (1342). This plan can encourage people to donate their organs. The government can control the act of selling and buying human organs from