Organ Black Market - Essay Example

Organ Black Market Introduction Organ transplantation is recognized as one of the major developments in the history of science and human beings. Transplantation of dead human organs to replace them with new ones helps individuals in extending their lifetime and living a better life as compared to the life they were living with a weak organ. Transplantation has helped individuals and groups because it is very effective and efficient as compared to dialysis treatment. The problem is that all individuals can not benefit from these advantages because there is limited availability of organs for transplantation purposes. People have to stay on waiting lists for years before they may ultimately get an organ that can replace their organ which does not function normally. During this period, patients even end up losing their lives as a result of organ failure. Transplantation of organs is very essential for certain individuals, selling organs on the black market is unethical as the act is against the foundations of organ donation, increases the expenditure of the donor and increases cost for the society. Body Presumed Consent Donation of organ is the act of giving a gift or voluntarily donating an organ to another person. When organ transplantation started taking place, the consent of the donor and his family was given great importance and without their consent organ donation and transplantation could not take place. Due to this, there was a shortage of organs available in the market and nations started applying presumed consent system. Presumed consent refers to one’s belief that a person or his family members have no objection regarding transplantation of organs of a dead individual. Presumed consent may not take place if the family members stop or disallow the transplantation procedure (Devettere 401). Due to presumed consent, ample numbers of patients who need organ donations have started gaining access to organs but the number is still quite low due to the existence of black markets. Because of the existence of black markets, presumed consent can not be practiced in an efficient manner as people prefer selling their organs in the black market rather donating it and this is a common practice in developing nations. Regulating Markets and Black Markets The huge amount of difference between the demand for organs and supply of organs has resulted in an increase in black markets for organs. The demand for organs is much higher than the supply throughout the world; this has made policy makers take measures to counter the difference between the demand and supply. This has led nations such as Singapore to reimburse and provide incentives to donors in order to encourage them to donate their organs (Cooper 15). Nations such as Singapore are even investing heavily in the procedure of donation and this is a very high cost to the donor in financial terms. The government and policy makers have taken steps such as paying for the transplant procedure and expenses that are bared by donors after the procedure has taken place. A major challenge recognized for the activities conducted by nations is the challenge known as transplant commercialism. Transplant commercialism is referred to the treatment of organs as a commodity which results in the buying and selling of organs and which increases the act of organ trafficking (Danovitch 443). Transplant commercialism is recognized as an unethical act because it shakes the very foundations of organ donation. Policy makers have realized that the nations that are providing incentives for organ donation are conducting an unethical act of reimbursing donors in return for their organs. On the other hand, policy makers do not restrict reimbursements. This will not leave the donor with a financial reward and will neither result in a disadvantage to him. According to the utilitarian view of ethics, all activities that are considered ethical must provide the optimum level of benefit to the society. If one views organ donation black markets under the ethical view of utilitarianism, organ donation black markets are said to be unethical as they increase the cost of the society and may provide utility to a very few number of individuals (Weimer 72). The costs involved with black markets are a result of black markets selling organs at a very high rate which is only affordable by few. Black markets pay very high amounts of financial rewards to donor. This promotes all donors to donate their organs to black markets, because those individuals who are trying to obtain donated organs through proper regulated channels fail to find a replacement for their dead or unhealthy organs and end up waiting in waiting lists for years and most of them even end up loosing their lives. The third negative aspect of black markets is that black markets do not provide health services to individuals who donate, due to this donors end up with bad health and all the financial rewards they gain for their act end up being wasted on their own health. According to Kant’s theory of ethics, the reason which an act is being conducted should be taken into consideration while deciding whether an act is ethical or not (Farrell 272). In the case of black markets, donors mostly donate for the reason of earning money and getting paid handsomely for their donation. This ends up ruining the base of organ donation which is that one person gifts to another. Certain policy makers are against the payment of incentives in return of organ donation but they promote the notion of regulating organ donation markets as this will decrease the amount of shortage of organs such as kidney. In order to create a market that is regulated a national level organization needs to be created that will monitor financial transactions taking place so they can keep a tight check on the fairness of the entire market. Such monitoring is required to ensure that those who are donating due to emotional reasons do not end up donating organs in return of money (Gilman 73). Policy makers have even proposed to give this task to one organization and this single organization will have roots in all nations and this organization should be responsible for managing the pool of donors. Several ethical reasons have been forwarded for the development of regulated organ donation market; the first justification is that such markets will help in eroding black markets that manipulate donors. These black markets have a very negative impact on the health of the donor and results in increased expenses for the donor after the process of organ transplantation has taken place. Black markets can never be justified in the case of organ donation because these markets treat the donor in a very bad manner. The donor takes the risk of donating his/her organ and after the procedure they end up ruining their health as these black markets do not ensure the health of the donor before the process and after the process. Therefore there is a need for regulated markets as regulated markets will ensure that the donor receives optimum level health care before the practice and after the practice and these markets need to pay rewards can not be matched by black markets. Conclusion Black markets for organ donation are unethical because these markets do not provide benefit to the entire society, instead these markets lead to higher number of difficulties for the society. Donors, who donate through black markets, do so due to the high financial rewards paid by black markets which are against the ethics of organ donation. Works Cited Cooper, D. K. C., Leslie W. Miller, and G. Alexander Patterson. The transplantation and replacement of thoracic organs the present status of biological and mechanical replacement of the heart and lungs. 2nd ed. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1996. Print. Danovitch, Gabriel M.. Handbook of kidney transplantation. 4th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2005. Print. Devettere, Raymond J.. Practical decision making in health care ethics cases and concepts. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1995. Print. Farrell, Anne, David P. T. Price, and Muireann Quigley. Organ shortage: ethics, law, and pragmatism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Print. Gilman, Nils, Jesse Goldhammer, and Steve Weber. Deviant globalization: black market economy in the 21st century. New York: Continuum, 2011. Print. Weimer, David Leo. Medical governance values, expertise, and interests in organ transplantation. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2010. Print. Read More