Arguments for and against organ transplantation

Argumentative essay for organ transplantation
Organ transplantation is the donating of one’s organ to another human being for replacing his or her damaged organ (County 2). This procedure has been proven to be successful in children and young adults and the elderly with comorbidities (Grinyó 1). This can prove to be life-saving for patients with terminal organ failures and painful therapies for survival (Grinyó 1). Over the last 60 years, the organ transplantation process has been growing with numerous cases, while the introduction of cyclosporine, thirty years before, improved the transplantation procedure (Grinyó 2). It was identified that the heart, kidneys, lungs, uterus, lungs, pancreas, intestine, and thymus, can be transplanted successfully (Grinyó 2). The United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS) established by the US congress in 1984 focuses on the policies and legal frameworks of organ transplantation. At the same time, the Organ Procurement Organizations (OPO) are the non-profit organizations that are responsible for acquiring and disseminating the organs (Staff 22). The successes of organ transplantation, combined with very few drawbacks, means that organ transplantation is a positive medical procedure that should be widely utilized.
Organ transplants has been a life-saving technique since the first organ transplant was conducted, consisting of three successful renal transplants done by Murray and Merrill, the first of which was done on identical twins, where the transplant functioning was obtained (Starzl, 5). While the first successful kidney transplant was done on a dog by Emerich Ullmann (Barker and Markmann 73). After much research and consideration, a 3-step strategy was devised, weakening the recipient’s immune system, infusing the donor bone marrow, and then the organ transplantation is done (Starzl 6). Immunosuppression drugs were introduced to prevent organ rejection in the recipient (Starzl 5). By the 1920s, the Rockefeller Institute introduced the tenets of the transplantation immunology, also emphasizing the importance of it.
Organ transplants today save thousands of lives every year. The Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation (GODT) indicated that around 100,000 organ transplantations occurred in 2010, involving kidney, liver, heart, lung, and pancreas transplantation (Grinyó 5). Organ transplantation is very significant as a single donor can hugely impact the life of the other people, saving up to eight lives (County 3). Organ transplantation also improves the quality of life by improving the life expectancy of the recipients (Grinyó 5). So it not only saves a life but ameliorates the quality of life in cases of donating eyes or tissues, relieving off the pain of those people and gifting them with an ability they were deprived of (County 2). It fulfills the lives of people who are dependent on poignant procedures for survival, giving them a fresh outlook on life. Organ transplantation has been quite a miracle in this century; for instance, the kidney transplantation for End-Stage Renal Disease patients (Grinyó 5).
Another argument supporting the organ transplantation is the ethical one, in that viable organs no longer needed by their original host can be passed on to save others, sometimes as many as 8 others (Hvidt et al. 2). There are two ethical considerations for the relatives to allow the organ transplant of the deceased; personal ethical facilitator and concrete altruistic effects (Hvidt et al. 2). In the personal ethical facilitator, the relatives are held responsible for their own ethical decisions. Because there are different types of organ donations, there are different ethical considerations for each type (Ehtuish, 2011). At the same time, the concrete altruistic effects refer to the satisfaction and gain from allowing organ donation (Hvidt et al. 4). These ethical considerations are necessary for improving the lives of millions through this act of charitable responsibility (Hvidt et al. 4).
Many studies emphasize organ donation through a moral perspective, thus promoting this ethical argument within the people having potential donors in their relatives (Hvidt et al. 5).
Even the health professionals who are involved in the organ donation are motivated by factors such as ethics and morals, performing the procedure full-heartedly (Hvidt et al. 3). The donor has no cost involved with donating his or her organs’; all the expenses are bored by the recipient’s family (County 5). This is kind of an altruistic act in which the donor selflessly wills to donate his or her organs to improve the quality of life or prolonging the life of another human being (County 5). The cost is covered by the family of the recipient of the organ recovery organization, making the act free of all the charges (County 5). Only the willingness and selflessness of the individual are required to be involved with this act of helping the other fellow beings in their times of suffering. This involves no expenditures on the part of the donor.
Among the numerous criticisms and problems identified in organ transplantation as that is not always successful (Sims 10). There was a case where the body rejected the transplanted organ after several days, showing that it can go wrong, causing peril to the life of the recipient (Sims 10). Organ transplantation not only affects the health of the recipient, but also, the one who sells their kidneys, having long-term repercussions for their health as well (Benefits are a few for Kidney Sellers 10). This shows that organ transplantation is not quite successful in many instances and can have adverse economic and health effects on the donors and the receivers, both. This shows that one of the barriers to the implementation of successful organ transplantation is the lack of knowledge regarding it (Hvidt et al. 2). Along with the counter-arguments for the ethical concerns, which focus on the fact that the recipients who are chain smokers or drug addicts, harming their kidneys and lungs on their own should face the repercussions of their self-harming acts (Radcliffe 2), makes the above arguments supporting the organ donation, for the success and ethics, weaker.
Another ethical issue that arises with organ transplantation is that it has in some cases become a commercial activity in which the poorer populations are exploited as seen by the reports and studies showing the largest number of kidney selling and buying happening in the third world countries, while kidney selling being popular in the slums and shantytowns in the Filipino capital of Manila (Hughes 2). Third world countries and poorer populations are exploited and taken under illegal and unethical organ trafficking where even the doctors become blind over this illicit act (Resnick 1). The World Health Organization (WHO), in 2007, identified several countries involved in this illegal organ trafficking act (Resnick 1). The potential donors a lot of times are misguided about their kidney functions, so they can be easily trapped in getting the kidney from them while in some cases, poor people are promised amounts of money for their kidney which is not given to them after the procedure gets completed (Resnick 2). There are many instances of the exploitation that occurs at all levels in the organ transplantation case.
Organ transplantation has been one of the successful and miraculous phenomena, making the transferring of one human’s organ to another possible through numerous discoveries and experimentation. The advancement of the medical field has made possible for the survival of humans with major organ damages or failures, improving their quality of life. Organ transplantation prolongs and improves the lives of the people with critical organ conditions and is considered ethically and morally right, relieving the suffering of another fellow being and giving them what they require to survive. However, there have been arguments against the organ transplantation, arising due to failed instances and commoditizing of the organs happening around the world, mostly affecting the poorer population. Even the ethical counter-arguments have been given that focuses on the self-harm theory whereby in today’s generation intake of drugs and other self-harming activities is mostly prevalent which dilutes the argument of a charitable act by the donor, and the recipient brought this fate onto himself or herself through indulging in such activities.
Work Cited
Barker, Clyde F, and James F Markmann. \"Historical Overviewed of Transplantation.\" Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in medicine 3.4 (2013):
Benefits are a few for Kidney Sellers. (2002, December). USA Today Magazine, p. 10. Academic Search Premier.
County, B. (2015, April 8). 5 benefits of organ donations. Florida Today.
Ehtiush, E. (2011) Ethical controversies in organ transplantation. Understanding the Complexities of Kidney Transplantation. Retrieved April 16, 2020 from https://www.intechopen.com/books/understanding-the-complexities-of-kidney-transplantation/ethical-controversies-in-organ-transplantation
Grinyó, Josep M. \"Why Is Organ Transplantation Clinically Important?\" Cold Spring Harbor perspectives in medicine 3.6 (2013)
Hughes, N. S. (2003, March). Human Kidneys: The New Cash Crop. New Internationalist. Academic Search Premier.
Hvidt, Niels Christian, et al. \"For and against Organ Donation and Transplantation: Intricate Facilitators and Barriers in Organ Donation Perceived by German Nurses and Doctors.\" Journal of transplantation 2016 (2016).
Radcliffe, J. (2012). Debating the ethics of organ transplantation. In The Ethics of Transplants. Oxford University Press.
Resnick, B. (2012, March 23). Living Cadavers: How the Poor Are Tricked Into Selling Their Organs. The Atlantic.
Sims, S. (2010). A Brief History of Organ Transplantation. Penn Bioethics Journal, 10-13. Academic Search Premier.
Staff, Institute of Medicine. Organ Procurement and Transplantation: Assessing Current Policies and the Potential Impact of the Dhhs Final Rule. National Academies Press, 1999.