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, written by economists David Kaserman and A. H. Barnett, there are 80,000 Americans on the organ transplant waiting list. Twenty of them die each day as a direct result of organ shortages; that's 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 National Organ Transplant Act, that prohibits payment to organ donors. Reliance on voluntary donations, has been an abject policy failure. It's noteworthy that everyone else involved in the organ transplant business 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 people 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 people are offended by the notion of human body parts becoming commodities for sale. There's 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? Food is vital, water is vital; so are clothing and housing. We don't depend on altruism and voluntary donations to provide these goods. And for good reason - there'd be massive shortages. Why 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. Let's look at some of them. One concern is that if organs are sol... ...r more criminal 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 there's greater incentive for illegal 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 they've recently taken 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 will be made to organ donors or their families as a means to encourage cadaveric organ collections. Work Cited David Kaserman and A. H. Barnett, The U.S. Organ Procurement System