Human Trafficking for Tissues, Cells, and Organs Paper Example

Introduction

Sixty-three thousand illegal non-related organ transplants are related to the illegal trafficking of human organs over the world every year (Kaserman, 2001). The conflict over organ transplants is highly debated, and many argue whether the National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA), the illegal trading of human body organs, should be made legal. Lifting this act could be detrimental, and donors could be scammed, kidnapped or even murdered for their healthy organs. Buying organs from citizens of third world countries should continue to be illegal because it is a form of human trafficking, and it is also unethical (Erin & Harris, 2003). It does not matter how one frames the initiative of increasing the supply of human organs, but the available supply is not meeting the essential demand. The number of people in need of organ transplant has been increasing day by day, and many kinds of research have been conducted to try to come up with a way of boosting the required number of organ supply. Critical, radical proposals have been implemented to try and meet the increase in demand the modest being creating the awareness of the need to donate the organs. Other significant proposals such as retrieving organs from the deceased without their notice, a donation from the willing members and the removal of the essential organs from the dead within the specified period before the organs become non-functional. As at January 2017, there are 121 678 people in the world on the list OPT to the transplant waiting for their lifesaving human body organs in the U.S of which 100 791 of these needs a kidney transplant (Kaserman, 2001). The number of the patients with kidney failure has been predicted to increase radically in the next ten years (Kaserman, 2001). A surge in the diabetes disease is the primary cause of kidney failure and due to this; the minority number of Americans are expected to increase rapidly.

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Literature Review

In some countries, organ selling is extremely looked down upon where many are alienated from their families, churches and the workplace. It's alleged that in most nations the choice to trade a human organ goes against the cultures and beliefs. No one should feel ashamed or feared for being labeled as an organ seller. The physiological issues linking to the organ selling is another reason why the NOTA law should continue to be illegal more regulated to make the prohibition of selling organs more effective (Budiani-Saberi, Raja, Findley, Kerketta & Anand, 2014).

Donation of human organs after a patient has undergone a controlled cardiac death process one of the main policy proposals that aim at increasing the supply of the organs in a specified country (Danovitch et al., 2013). A family may decide to donate some of the body organs of a patient after realizing that there is no any sign of progress even after the patient undergoes the treatment. The patients that have no sign of survival are the potential donors of the body organs. Their organs are later removed from their body once they die with allusion to the cardiac criteria. The number of controlled cardiac death has increased rapidly from the first time it was carried out. This is after creating public awareness and advising the public on the importance of carrying out such activities. On May 26 2016 the number of the controlled cardiac hit to 109,659 donors (Danovitch et al., 2013). However, the public may not rely on this since many transplant centers yet have not secured donation after carrying out the controlled cardiac procedures. These procedures should not be encouraged since according to the right hospital policy, the sixth criteria indicates that if the patient is not dead by the time the specialist is done with the controlled cardiac process, the patient should be taken to in another peaceful place where he/ she can die peacefully. Expansion of the donation should never encourage any donation hospitals to progress without the transplant of the required organ.

Some of the concerns expressed by the group of people against donation are that the patients viewed as donor's quality of life will be undermined since most doctors will only care about the patients who require the donated organ (Danovitch et al., 2013). This may influence some of the doctors to terminate some of the life-sustaining procedures hence making the method inappropriate. It is also disturbing to have the donor die in the surgical rooms attached in the surgical machines with doctors surrounding with surgical tools ready to remove some of the body parts from his/her body. The donor should be allowed to rest in peace and if possible, in the company of his /her family members, which is not the case here. Concerning the withdrawal of the decision of treatment a conflict of interest may arise. It might not be the wish of the family members to allow the surgical doctors to proceed with their operation to remove the donation parts from the body of the donor. However, a case may arise where the patient who requires, for example, the heart may be in a critical condition, and this may lead to the family of the donor being forced to make a tough decision and allow the death to come to their member (Columb, 2015). It is also possible for the donor to recover from the cessation of heart but at a time like this, the doctors will tend to declare the donor dead since they have no time to try to resuscitate the donor through technical medical procedures.

Organ transplants are most prevalent in third world countries where people are recruited from the slums to undergo surgery with a promise of compensation. Organ activists prey on poor communities because they know people are willing to sell their organs for money. When the organ traffickers offer compensation for harvesting organs, they are exploiting these people by taking advantage of their economic standpoint. There are no laws that prohibit these transactions in these areas of the world, which makes it easy for anyone to buy and sell organs through the black market. Knowing that this problem is a daily occurrence from a lack of authority and law reinforcement supports the NOTA act and emphasizes that this law needs to be regulated in areas of high organ trafficking (Arnold et al., 2002).

Interventions

Since these dealings occur in third world countries, the donors agree to sell their healthy organs for a fraction of what they are truly worth (Yousaf & Purkayastha, 2016). The people who sell their organs agree on such a low a price because they are desperate for money. The organ scalper's know that these communities are poverty stricken and can exploit these people by reimbursing the donors with a small amount of money. This process is wrong because the organ scalpers make more money from the deal than the people who get the surgery. It is sad that people agree to risk their health for such a small amount of money, but they do it from financial desperation. If donors experience a desperate need for money, how would the patients be able to afford the medical attention needed for checkups and medication after the surgery in addition to the cost of living? The transaction seems like an equal trade because everyone involved gets a share. However, the compensation the organ sellers receive does not cover the pain and suffering they go through. It is unethical for people to mistreat and underpay the organ sellers the way they do (Erin & Harris, 2003). This dilemma can only be stopped of something is done to end the organ trade.

Identification and Application of a Human Rights Article

About article four of the universal declaration of human rights, "Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person" (Lauterpacht, 2011). Trafficking of human organs is considered to be against the right to life especially when the poor are forced to give their organs for money. Equally, the use of slavery as a tool to acquire human organs for sale is against the right to life and liberty. However, advocates considered organs to be treated just like the other physical properties where the buyer and the seller can bargain and come up with a price of agreement (Ambagtsheer & Weimar, 2016). It is one of the proposals that have a reputed potency worth consideration in that it would generate a colossal increase in the supply of the required organs. This is a proposal that was discussed at 1984 to try to amend the National Organ Transplantation act by trying to legalize the payment for an organ. The amendment had the organ vendor who is the donor on payment and the recipient who is the patient. There are three types of donors; the living donor the one who donate an organ while still alive (Columb, 2015). The second donor is the potential donor, one who sells their prospect rights to their body parts. These organs are usually donated after the donor's death. The third category of the donor is the deceased donor, one who would be compensated when the organ will be procured.

In third world countries selling organs may be the only option people have to survive. Organs have emerged as a gold standard where "they represent a person's ultimate collateral against hunger, debt, and penury" (Ambagtsheer, & Weimar, 2016). Despite NOTA's efforts, the organ trade does not show any sign of slowing down. In many countries, there is no enforcement of this law allowing these transactions to take place with little or no official investigation. However, some countries are trying to solve this issue. For example, "Pakistan, which is one of the top transplant countries, has no law regulating organ transplantation but is in the process of creating a law with the help from an organization called World Health Association" (Ambagtsheer, & Weimar, 2016).

Implications for the Wocial Work Profession

The process of illegally purchasing an organ begins with a wealthy human in need of an organ who does not want to wait for one to be donated. It can take as long as ten years before the proper organ is found for the recipient (Erin & Harris, 2003). After deciding where the buyer wants the organ to be harvested from (an African, South American, Caucasian, etc.) the wealthy human will fly to the donor's country, or transport the organ to complete the transaction. When the surgery is complete, the donor will receive the small profit they have made and return to their shantytown home. At first glance, this operation appears like a win-win situation, but the problem with this action is that it is unethical. Under these circumstances of the lousy tradeoff, is it ethical for an individual to use another for his or her well being? "Is the pain and suffering of an individual being justified by the benefit of another individual?" (Erin & Harris, 2003). This procedure may sound quick and easy, but organ transplantations are not always organized and can go wrong. For example, people can be lured into a job offer and end up waking up in a room missing their kidney.

There are many risks associated with buying an organ through the black market. No papers are guaranteeing that the organ is healthy or the organ's previous history. If the organ is coming from a third world country, there is a chance that it was exposed to disease and an unhealthy environment. The risk of receiving a diseased body part was highlighted after the discovery of the two American patients who died of cancer that came from the transplanted organs. News like this should have prospective buyers second-guess the decision of illegally buying organs through the black market. These cases may be rare, but the chance of this happening should override the very idea...