Kidneys For Sale March 20, 2008
Posted by keepbreathing in Uncategorized.trackback
Marko over at The Munchkin Wrangler has written an interesting piece about paid organ donation. I always have been the sort to make light of organ donation. Indeed, a friend of mine and I had a long-running joke about starting a kidney smuggling ring for fun and profit. But all jesting aside, organ donation is a serious issue and one that deserves a fair bit of attention. There are thousands of people out there who need organs, and there are thousands more who die every year while waiting for organs to be donated to them by somebody out of the goodness of their heart.
The truly heartbreaking part of the system is how many potential donors are not harvested and how many potential recipients miss out because of that. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen perfectly good donors (brain-dead teenagers, almost-cardiac-dead adults, and so on) be buried with their organs because of a squeamish family or a family who have misconceptions about where the organs go.
A potential solution to the problem of donor shortage is to simply allow people to be paid for their organs. Now, plenty of folks get really upset when you mention the concept of paying somebody to donate an organ, but I have never once heard a coherent argument against paid organ donation.
Anyway, Marko’s got it covered. Go on over and check it out.
Allowing people to sell organs would save thousands of lives every year. Unfortunately, there is no reason to think Congress will legalize this in the foreseeable future.
Fortunately, there is an already-legal way to put a big dent in the organ shortage — allocate donated organs first to people who have agreed to donate their own organs when they die. The United Network for Organ Sharing, which manages the national organ allocation system, has the power to make this simple policy change. No legislative approval is required.
Americans who want to donate their organs to other registered organ donors don’t have to wait for UNOS to act. They can join LifeSharers, a non-profit network of organ donors who agree to offer their organs first to other organ donors when they die. Membership is free at http://www.lifesharers.org or by calling 1-888-ORGAN88. There is no age limit, parents can enroll their minor children, and no one is excluded due to any pre-existing medical condition.
Giving organs first to organ donors will convince more people to register as organ donors. It will also make the organ allocation system fairer. People who aren’t willing to share the gift of life should go to the back of the waiting list as long as there is a shortage of organs.
Yes I agree about paying for organs – as the saying goes “Money talks” and if this be the case then let those bribes save a life.
P.S Money is the root of all evil but if evil saves lives then there is no argument in paying for organs
I am the clinical director of an organ procurement organization and have been directly involved in hundreds of organ donor cases over the past fourteen years.
I can give you a couple of arguments against paying for organs.
1) in terms of living donation (kidneys mostly, but livers, pancreata and lungs to a lesser extent), anywhere donation-for-compensation has been allowed, it has led to exploitation of the poor. India is the best example of this; the “donors” (not all are willing) receive substandard care and end up with a missing kidney and extensive health problems, and relatively little money left over after paying for unforeseen medical expenses.
2) in the case of deceased organ donation, with a finacial incentive dangling in front of them families could have an incentive to lie about their loved one’s medical/social history. As just one example, even a remote history of melanoma is an exclusion for organ donation because of the many documented cases of transmission from donor to recipient. So when I go in to talk to a family about donation and tell them that I have a check for $10K if their loved one is a suitable donor, then proceed to ask them a series of make-or-break questions about their loved one’s history, do you think they might have some incentive to lie about that history? Do you want to bet your life on it?
Organ donation after death is simply the right thing to do. Any reasonable person would stop to render aid to another (absent a sitation that would put the renderer in unreasonable danger). Indeed, at least one state requires that citizens stop to render aid if no others are present to do so. Organ donation is no different. Deceased organ donors suffer no ill effects from donation. The only reasons people say no to donation is ignorance (traumatic or otherwise) or misanthropy. Neither one is a legitimate excuse, in my mind.
In my mind, living donation is less clear as a societal obligation because the risk, while still relatively small, is still there, and it’s not an easy procedure to undergo.
You can abort a child in a womb but you can’t sell your kidney to save a life, I agree with the Iranians, that’s why there’s no waiting list.
I would like to d$nate my kidney, I’m a healthy female,United States, I have the right to do whatever I want with my body, and I choose to SAVE a life. 36life@live.com
NAIK 09 – Novemer, 23, 2009
Due to some family problem & i have two daughter’s better education and future. So i want to sold my one Kidney.
Please contact on my mail gullu.naik09@yahoo.in