Commercialization of organ transplant

Commercialization of Organ Transplant
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In the UK for instance, about one thousand patients died while in the waiting list for organ donations while three thousand others received transplants between the year 2006 and 2007 (Wilkinson, 2011). In the US the median time that patients spend on the waiting list is estimated to be nearly 3 years (Knoll, 2008). By 2102, the supply of organ donations on any given day is three thousand and three hundred persons while the demand is at one hundred and fourteen thousand persons (Park, 2012). The supply of organs for transplants is far below the demand and it is illegal for person in the US to sell their organs. Many patients requiring organ transplants often acquire them from deceased patients and relatives. The transplant system in the health industry is therefore entirely dependent on persons' altruistic gestures (Hausleben, 2013). Commercializing organ transplants has been proposed as a feasible way to solve the problem of chronic shortage of organs for transplantation (Wilkinson, 2011).
One argument for the sale of transplants is that competent and independent adults have a reasonable right to use their bodies in ways they deem fit. This notion applies particularly where their activities have no effect on third parties. This argument for commercialization indicates that in the absence of strong opposition, people should exercise their right to sell part of their bodies. Another argument for commercialization centers on the premise of saving lives. This argument espouses that selling an organ to achieve the end of resolving the chronic shortage is defensible (Wilkinson, 2011).
Another argument for commercialization equates the activity to other equally risky or even more risky activities such as risky labor. They cite examples such as coal mining, fire-fighting, military service as dangerous labor that is often times more risky than selling one's organ. They indicate that such dangerous labor is labeled as heroic. Proponents espouse that it is seemingly inconsistent to reward dangerous labor which achieves similar results such as saving lives but condemning people for receiving payment for organs which save lives (Wilkinson, 2011).
Transplant commercialization opponents indicate that there are alternative ways in which one can secure a transplant other than through a living donor. They indicate that it is more plausible for the health care system to approach bereaved relatives. They cite that those concerned should improve how they approach the bereaved persons to increase chances that they give consent for extraction of organs because the supply of potential donor cadavers is substantially sufficient. They also indicate that exploring ways to influence living donors to provide unpaid for organs is another viable alternative (Wilkinson, 2011).Opponents of commercialization also indicate that commercializing organ transplants exposes people to widespread harm of different forms. They indicate that it could encourage organ trafficking which involves very high levels of harm especially because it is unregulated. They also indicate that donors may be exposed to health risks such as wounds or infections in the urine after kidney extraction (Campbell, 2009).
It is unethical for one to allow patients to die of treatable conditions. Allowing people to sell their organs to patients allows the medical fraternity to treat diseases such as kidney failure. It is also unethical to bar poor people that are potential organ donors from using their poetical for poverty alleviation. Allowing organ sale addresses poverty in instances where many poor but healthy people may benefit from payment received from organ sale. It is justifiable to offer organs to people who desperately require them in exchange for money to poor people in desperate need to eradicate poverty (Denneman & Mol, 2012). Poor people require such alternatives as ways to improve their financial status through regulated organ markets. Regulated markets coordinate efforts to ensure buyers' and sellers' safety, transparency about inherent risks, payment, and post-transplant care. Proposals indicate that governments are the most ...