Organ Donation Pros And Cons

Every year in the U.S the number of organs needed, versus those available for transplant rises and thousands are left waiting— and thousands waiting, die. Every ten minutes someone is added to the U.S national organ transplant waiting list and on average 22 people die every day still waiting for a transplant. In 2015, there were 122,071 people waiting for transplant by year’s end("National Data - OPTN," 2016). Only half of viable potential deceased donors actually donate and potential living donors are deemed medically unsuitable or are unwilling to donate. Thus there isn 't enough organs to satisfy the ever growing need. Legalizing financial incentive for organ donation could increase the number of willing donors, as well as decrease illegal organ harvesting and transplant. Increasing the availability of donors would save countless lives. However, would offering a financial incentive to people to sell their organs and the organs of their recently deceased love ones be Ethical?
Pros
For those with kidney disease a transplant is a life saving gift. There are currently 99,289 people on the national wait list for a kidney. Kidneys are the number one organ on the transplant list making up 90% of the patients. There is the greatest disparity between supply and demand with kidney transplants, …show more content…
However, financial compensation can be used to increase supply to meet the high demand. In 1988, Iran’s government began a program for compensation and regulation of kidney donation. By 1999 Iran completely eliminated the transplant list. By 2005, 19,609 transplants were performed, 3421 from living related donars, 15,356 from living-unrelated donors and 823 from deceased donors(Major, 2008).Using a model similar to Iran 's we could create a supply to meet the demand of these organs while still keeping a regulated