Developing an Organ Transplant Market Essay -- Medicine Medical Essays

Developing an Organ Transplant Market According to a new book, The U.S. Organ Procurement System, create verbally by economists David Kaserman and A. H. Barnett, in that respect are 80,000 Americans on the organ transplant waiting list. Twenty of them die each day as a direct settlement of organ shortages thats over 7,000 each year. These lost lives are not so much an act of God as they are an act of Congress because of its 1984 issue Organ Transplant Act, that prohibits payment to organ donors. Reliance on voluntary donations, has been an abject policy failure. Its noteworthy that everyone else involved in the organ transplant task is rewarded handsomely - that includes surgeons, nurses and organ procurement workers.How might an organ transplant market work? Lloyd Cohen, a law professor at George Mason University, envisions letting passel contract in advance to permit the harvesting of any usable organs when they die. The money earned would become a part of their estate. Many community are offended by the notion of human body parts becoming commodities for sale. Theres at least a tiny bit of inconsistency because there is a market for human blood, semen and hair.How many vital things in our lives do we depend on altruism or voluntary donations to provide? diet is vital, water is vital so are clothing and lodgement. We dont depend on altruism and voluntary donations to provide these goods. And for good reason - thered be massive shortages. wherefore should we depend on altruism or voluntary donations to provide what we may one day need more urgently than food, water, clothing or housing? All objections to organ sales reduce to either nonsense, ignorance or arrogance. Lets look at some of them.One concern is that if organs are sol... ...r more sorry activity associated with alcohol manufacture, distribution and consumption than there is now. To the extent that prohibition of organ sales reduces their supply, holding all else equal theres greater inc entive for iniquitous activities involving organ transplants, including murder.The medical profession has traditionally been opposed to organ sales. Their opposition would seem to be in violation of Hippocrates admonition - primum non nocere. But theyve recently interpreted steps, all be they timid, towards ending the day to day deaths due to organ shortages. At their July 2002 meeting, the American Medical Association voted agreement to commence trials in which payments provide be made to organ donors or their families as a means to encourage cadaveric organ collections. Work CitedDavid Kaserman and A. H. Barnett, The U.S. Organ Procurement System