Organ Donation - Research Paper Example

Organ donation If one takes a look at the human society, one can not help noticing that it should be regarded as an irreplaceable prerequisite for the development of the inner potential of a person to its fullest. Indeed, if it had not been for the social environment, a considerable number of characteristic features of human individuality would not have developed. In addition to that, the society also protects life through different measures, suggesting that life of every individual is precious. There is an ongoing debate about whether organ donation should be seen as an effective tool to save lives of other people. The society is divided in two with regard to this issue. On the one hand, there are people who claim that it is a positive practice that brings a considerable number of positive consequences. On the other hand, the opponents of the above mentioned approach point out various personal as well as religious reasons why people should not perform it. In this essay, I will claim that organ donation is a positive phenomenon that saves lives, contributes to the improvement of the society and helps the families in various ways. To begin with, one should focus on the most positive as well as undeniable advantage of the practice in question: it is literally capable of saving lives of the people. Keeping in mind that being alive should be regarded as the most precious gift that a person is able to receive, there is no doubt that if one is capable to giving it, one should not hesitate for a moment. Indeed, not so many actions that are performed by people have such a positive outcome. Another point that should be mentioned with this regard is that a person does not only save one life by donating organ, but up to eight ("Donate Life Month"). In other words, a single person can help many other individuals and grant them a second chance. It is clear that every day all over the country people die; so, if they all donate their organs that every day eight times more people will be saved. This is surely a positive trend for the society in general. The significance of saving lives of citizens in obvious: it does not only allow particular families to be with their relatively longer, but it also strengthens the country in general as there will be more people who will work and contribute to prosperity. Moreover, it will reflect the spirit of value of every single life. The next positive aspect about organ donation that should be taken in close consideration is the fact that it contributes to formation of an effective framework within the social environment that favors cooperation. Indeed, donating an organ is not a simple action. There are many specialists involved from the early stages to the very late ones. This means that from the time when a healthy organ is extracted from a person and until it is transplanted into a different body there are numerous people who make sure that the outcome of this endeavor is positive. In other words, every such operation brings these specialists together and teaches them to work as a team (Novitzky 221). In addition to that, a similar process might be observed on a smaller level as well. For example, it is uncommon for two families that do not know each other to exchange some valuable gifts, but organ donation teaches that this can be a reality. As a result this experience become some sort of a glue that bring different parts of the society together and helps saving even more lives in the future. One can hardly deny the fact that social environments all over the world are often comprised with diverse groups of people. While there are many governments who struggle with finding a common ground for different parts of the population, healthcare and respect for human life can be such a ground. Now, it may be advantageous to take a close look at the issue from the point of view of the families that are involved. Thus, the most common scenario for organ donation envisions that a person died and parts of one’s body will be used in the future. It is clear that in case there is a family that lost its relative and they feel a great tragedy. It seems that nothing can help them feel better. However, I believe that if organs of the deceased are donated, this will allow the family to take a look at their tragedy from a different perspective ("Why Be an Organ Donor?"). Indeed, this act does not remove the feeling of loss, it also does not return a person back to life; however, it shows that in such a horrible event, there is a positive side. Indeed, death of one person led to bringing life and hope to another and possible many other people. As a result, the tragedy actually brought joy to some other families. I think that this might remove some of the negative atmosphere. It is quite understandable that there are might be situations in life when it is rather difficult to find a positive aspect of a particular situation. Moreover, saving life of another person with the help of organ donation can not be considered to be a positive action by some people. That is why one of the most essential things to keep in mind is the proposed solution will work only if people truly want to see their personal tragedy from a broader perspective. What is more important is that the family of the deceased might think that a part of their relative will be living on (Howarth 338). This might seem as a rather strange perspective, but that is exactly what happens in the reality. In spite of the fact that the value of a person can hardly be deduced from parts of one’s body or even organs, the latter are an inseparable part of an individuals. That is why when the brain dies and there is no way to return the personality, the families might find joy in the fact that the heart, the liver or any other organ of the person who they loved will be living on. It is quite obvious that it is not correct to think that in the body of organ recipient there will be a part of another person, but from a broad perspective lives of these two people will be closely connected and will continue. There were many cases when people experienced certain changes in their lifestyle after transplantation of an organ. Of course, they did not acquire new skills, but some note that they started feeling the world in a different way. I believe that this might be seen as an indication that some part of the person who donated the organ was able to influence the recipient. Finally, one of the major benefits of organ transplantation that is largely overlooked by the people who examine the issue is that this practice also helps people save money (David 75). It is often suggested that organ donation is the step that actually saves life of a person. However, in reality it is just one of the numerous steps that the family of a person makes to achieve the desirable goal. Few people think about the procedures that are performed in hospitals while waiting for an organ transplant. In other words, when a person donates an organ, it saves time and money for the person who desperately needs it. Of course, there still will be need of financial funds to perform the surgery and make sure that a person gets well. However, it is less expensive that keep a person alive with a failing organ and hoping that a suitable organ will appear. All this results in the fact that lives of many people could have been saved if they had not run out of money before somebody donated an organ to them. Having examined all the points which were brought up in the paragraphs above, one might suggest the following: organ donation is surely a positive practice that should be performed by people all over the country. There are several reasons to that. First of all, organ donation saves life and it is not only one life that is saved, but several. Keeping in mind that the latter is considered to be precious, the value of this action can hardly be exaggerated. Secondly, organ donation also increased cooperation between different people in the society. Thirdly, organ donation is able to help families overcome the tragedy that the experience and develop a positive perspective of the situation. Of course, this action is not able to remove all the negative feelings, but it is able to help them re-evaluate what happened to their relative. Finally, one should also point out that organ donation is a process that is able to save money to the family of the recipient. Indeed, the life of the latter will no longer have to be sustained. Works Cited David, Orit Brawer. Organ Donation and Transplantation Body Organs as an Exchangeable Socio-cultural Resource. Westport, CN: Praeger, 2005. Print. "Donate Life Month." Advancingyourhealth.org. 1 Jan. 2013. Web. 4 Apr. 2015. Retrieved from http://advancingyourhealth.org/transplant/2013/04/01/pros-cons-organ-donation/ Howarth, Glennys. Encyclopedia of Death and Dying. London: Routledge, 2002. Print. Novitzky, Dimitri. The Brain-dead Organ Donor Pathophysiology and Management. New York, NY: Springer, 2012. Print. "Why Be an Organ Donor?" Donatelifeny.org. 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 4 Apr. 2015. Retrieved from http://www.donatelifeny.org/about-donation/why-be-an-organ-donor/ Read More