Organ Sales Will Save Lives - Essay Example

'Organ Sales Will Save Lives' is a marvelous example of a paper on transplantation and donation. 
Joanna McKay wrote the student paper entitled “Organ Sales Will Save Lives” on November 20, 2004. The argument that she presented in the paper is quite simple. Our medical community has a growing number of renal failure patients who rely on multiple dialysis treatments a week in order to survive. When dialysis begins to fail, the only option left for the patient will be to find a cadaver kidney donor. However, the rules governing the donation of harvested organs follow strict regulatory guidelines that force a renal failure patient to wait at least a decade for a donor. Ms. McKay's argument is that because of the difficulty in securing a cadaver donor, most especially one that is genetically compatible with the patient, the government should consider allowing the sale of kidneys from healthy people who wish to do so. She explains that kidney sales are already happening on an international black market scale.  Therefore, all the government has to do is step in and regulate the industry in order to ensure the safe implementation of kidney sales.

Ms. McKay sees nothing wrong regulating the sale of kidneys by healthy individuals provided they come from third world countries where the money is scarce and people will do anything to survive, even selling their own kidneys. She makes specific mention of the fact that the hospitals and doctors are actually in on the black market business since they fly in teams from other countries into third world countries in order to harvest the kidney and bring it back to where the kidney is needed for transplant.

Government regulation will bring the sale of the kidney into a more controllable situation that will allow the seller, the middleman, and the patient to benefit from the sale. Unlike the situations in cadaver kidney donations wherein only the patient has a specific benefit to look forward to.

The author presents a compelling argument in favor of kidney sales. There is truth to her information that people in the third world countries will sell their kidneys for a fee and sacrifice their own health in the process if it means that the sale will allow them to save a relative's life or pay off a debt they owe. They understand the consequences of their actions in relation to their future medical conditions but they do not seem to care. Money is what is important to them. Nothing more, nothing less.

That is why I believe that Joanna McKay's move to justify the move to regulate the sale of kidneys is something that comes from a good place but lacks a thorough study of the regulation that she has in mind. I would have to say that Ms. McKay has her heart in the right place since she wishes to find a way for renal failure patients to get their much-needed kidneys. However, the method by which she suggests that the government does so is one that veers into the unethical side of organ donation. After all, once a kidney is donated, the person who did the donating will have to be careful of the rest of his life. That is why her idea of regulating the business of organ donation reeks of exploitation, manipulation, and taking advantage of those who also find themselves in dire circumstances. I would suggest instead, that she concentrate her efforts on finding a way to relax the cadaver organ donation rules and regulations so that everyone, both young and old, rich and poor, will have an equal opportunity to receive their much-needed transplants within a shorter time frame.