Argumentative Essay on Organ Transplant and Donation

Introduction

Organ transplant and donation has been a big debate in many communities. It is also taboo in some communities especially in the underdeveloped countries in Africa. It is therefore hard to sell the idea to them. Culture has been one of the biggest blocks to the practice of holding people back from donating their organs to other upon their death (Minniefield 1192). Additionally, religion also plays a big role in dissuading people from donating their internal organs. However, according to science, there is nothing wrong in doing so. Donation of a healthy organ to another person in need is a very noble thing to and it can help many people. It involves transplanting a healthy organ from a donor in time of their death. The medical procedure is carried with care in order not to damage the organ. The process is not only limited to the dying people but also to a healthy living person in case of organs such as the kidney. Human beings have two kidneys and therefore, a donor can give one and still remain alive and healthy for the rest of their life. The paper argues for organ transplanting donation upon the death of a human being. There is a huge gap between the number of people in need of organs and that of people willing donate their organs. Many people are dying of preventable diseases and cases. All they need is an organ donor to replace their ailing part of the body. By 2018, approximately 115,085 people were in dire need of organs. Their lives were held a lifesaving machine in the US. It is therefore appropriate that organ donation is activated all over the world to save the lives of such people. It is sad that 7o% of patients requiring heart transplant succeeded in a period of 36 months (OPTN 1).

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The Need for Organ Transplant and Donation

Transplantation of an organ is a critical process in organ donation. It is a hallmark in the history of medicine. This has been facilitated by advanced technology in medicine. Organ donation is only carried out if the donor had accepted to donate his or her organ upon death. The organ is transplanted from the dead person within hours of their death and it is preserved for it to be transplanted to a needy person. Organ donation is not popular worldwide. Very few people accept to donate their organs. It is only relatives who consider donating their organs in case of some cases involving kidney. Human beings have two kidneys and can survive with one. The most common transplants involve organs like skin, bone marrow, bones, lungs, intestines, pancreas, liver, heart, and kidneys. Most of these organs can only be donated upon the death of a donor. However, others can be carried out in pieces such as kidney, intestines, lungs, pancreas, liver, and kidneys. A donor can give a part of these organs.

According to Hvidt et al. (10), many people have been dying while on a waiting list for organ donation. It is estimated that in the US, in a population of 15330 liver patients between 2009 and 2011, only 5805 who successfully went through a transplant after finding a donor. Many people died on the waiting list, 2456 to specific died before receiving a transplant during the period. Others became critically ill and the transplant could no longer help and therefore, 482 of the patients were removed from the waiting list. At the end of 2011, 62% of patients had not received a transplant. Lung patients performed better than heart patients, between 2010 and 2012, the waiting time for a lung transplant was four months and a patient had 65.3% chances of receiving a transplant in the US.

The Gap Between Organ Demand and Supply

Many people fail to give organs due to lack of information and knowledge about. Organ donation can improve the level of confidence in a person. A donor's self-esteem is elevated due to saving someone else live. The donor becomes a hero among the rest of the people, and he or she continues to live after donating the organ even at death. This is because a part of them lives in someone else. It is the most humane action to do-saving another person's life with one of your organs. There is no help greater than donating an organ to a needy patient.

Arguments for Organ Transplant and Donation

The organ is useless in a dead person; it is their reasonable to give such an organ to a needy person who is alive. When a person dies and is buried, the body of the person decomposes. The process has no value to human beings and even the point where a body is buried is usually kept off by people. Therefore, burying a healthy person with organs intact is not reasonable. It is instead a double loss. Their organs go to waste yet they would have assisted another person to live longer and again, the land where their body is buried has no economic use. Instead, the land is set aside and it is usually a taboo in many cultures to build or even farm on a grave. For ages, people have feared the dead and the grave yards where they are buried. The piece of land becomes useless for several generations to come until the living losses touch with the grave. It, therefore, remains idle for three to five generations.

Economic and Financial Benefits of Organ Donation

Organ donation is a noble thing to do. It should be highly encouraged in our society. Actually, the people who donate their organs should be recognized and awarded before they are dead. The society should carry out a massive sensitization to encourage the practice and save the lives of people who are in need of certain organs. For example, in the US alone, it was reported that 115, 085 patients were in need of organs and they were in life supporting machines hoping to find a donor. It is very hard to find an organ donor, thus there exist a huge discrepancy between the organs donated and the demand for the organs in hospital.

From an economic and financial dimension, it is absolutely necessary for the organ donation process to be done. Great losses are incurred by the loss of lives which could have been prevented. The death of a single person is a huge to a country and to the world economically. Every person plays a critical role in every economy as they carry on with their daily lives. People work and consume, by so doing they contribute towards the GDP of a country. Death, therefore, takes away an important contributor to the economy. Even though death is unpreventable, every living human being must die at some point, it is important to save a life where possible. Some people die at their prime age where their contribution to the economy is at the highest. Not only are their families and friends at a loss upon their death, the economy is also bereaved. It takes a lot of resources to bring up a human being and educate them. It is therefore tragic when a mature young person dies out of organ failure at their prime age when they are utterly active and contributing highly to the economy. They may have left behind young children and other people who depended on them for survival. It is therefore inappropriate to allow death to occur as a result of an organ failure because it is preventable was there many organ donors. Governments should carry out massive civil education to encourage people to donate organs in a similar way they do blood donations. Following a research by Hvidt et al (2-8), many people die of organ failures. In the US, approximately 120000 people are on the waiting list and it is witnessed 21 deaths of patients daily due to lack of donors. There is a huge deficit for organ donation in the US. In Germany, approximately 1000 people die annually due to lack of organ donors or rather due to organ failures.

Cases Against Organ Transplant and Donation

There are many factors that dissuade people from donating their organs. Some of these reasons include ignorance, government legislation, religion, culture, political reasons among many others. The common reason for the negative attitude toward organ donation and transplant is ignorance (Minniefield 1192). Many people have little information about. The matter has not been given much public limelight. The government and other stakeholders need to carry out a sensitization campaign to inform people about it. Some people believe that the medical practitioner would be less careful while doing the transplants on them and they would have to meet the medical cost on their own and yet they are giving away their organs. Such sentiments put them off.

Religion is a huge factor that holds people back from donating their organs. Matters of the afterlife are very complicated and many religions dissuade their members from donating their organs (Stranders 124). Most of these religions are conservative in nature and are tied to culture and traditions such as Shinto and some African religions. For example, Buddhism highly discourages the practice among its faithful. According to the religion, human bodies should be respected even at death. Islamic teachings are controversial towards the subject and therefore; some teachings are against it while others are for it. Jehovah witness allows organ donation only if the organ's blood would be completely drained before transplantation. In many of the underdeveloped countries, there is no legal system to control organ donation and therefore, the donors are often exploited and left worse off than before. Cases of black market are on the rise because demand for organs outstrips their supply.

In England, automatic organ donation is being considered. The public is being considered and if it sails through, people will automatically be enlisted as organ donors upon their deaths unless they opt out of the system (Gore, Hinds, and Rutherford 1195). This is a very good move and it will save many human's life. It is ethical to donate one's organ and according to deontology, it is an obligation for people to behave ethically. Donation of organs is a matter of charity and many religions support it from that point of view, believers should therefore not fear about it.

Political reasons also play a role in organ transplant and donation. For example, some people argue that patient in needs of organs such as liver and they were drunkards should be given one. This is because they spoilt their liver through abuse of alcohol in full knowledge of its consequences. It is important that the population in a country should have faith in their medical system. For example, in Brazil, an opt-out system was done away with due to nationals' lack of faith in their medical system. The UK is in the process of introducing an opt-out system since a majority of people in the region are for an organ transplant and donation (Randhawa et al. 745). This indicates that they have faith in their medical system.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I highly argue for organ transplant and donation. The negative attitude towards the noble action is usually baseless. In most of the times, it is based on lack of knowledge or ignorance. Organ transplant and donation has many benefits to the society. It has emotional, economic and financial benefits. Many lives are saved, which leads to economic and financial gain. The dead body is not functional and it does not benefit. Therefore, it is reasonable to transplant all the healthy organs in a body of a dead person before disposing it off. Additionally, the self-esteem of a donor is enhanced because one saves live by giving an organ. Many people are suffering in the society from low self-esteem; they should engage in live-saving missions like donating their organs to the sick and needy and thus boost their self-esteem and morale.

Works Cited

Gore, Sheila M., Charles J. Hinds, and Annabel J. Rutherford. "Organ donation from intensive care units in England." Bmj 299.6709 (1989): 1193-1197.

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).

Minniefield, William J., Jun Yang, and Paola Muti. "Differences in attitudes toward orga...