Essay On Organ Donation

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Recommended: Ethical issues surrounding organ donation

Applying Sociological Perspectives Organ donation is defined as the process of surgically removing an organ or tissue from one person (the organ donor) and placing it into another person (the recipient) (Cleveland Clinic, 2013). Organ donation is a great advance in modern medicine that gives us the capability to save patients with failing organs that would otherwise die. One of the main issues we are faced with when it comes to organ donation is that there is a much higher need for donated organs than there are organ donors (Cleveland Clinic, 2013). When looking at organ donation through the lense of a functional analyst, the institution of health was created to serve many different purposes. The function of health in our society is to provide …show more content…

With a success rate between 80 and 90 percent organ donation has become a reliable and efficient option for people all over the world (LiveOnNy, 2016). The process of organ donation is essential to the institution of health for it to continue to function smoothly and to provide the protection and safety it was designed to create. Organ donation also has many latent functions such as creating jobs for the surgeons and doctors. When analyzing organ donation from the viewpoint of a conflict theorist, organ donation can create many issues and highlight many inequalities seen throughout the world. Unlike functionalists, conflict theorists do not view society as a harmonious whole, they stress that it is composed of many groups that are constantly competing for scarce resources, and there is a constant struggle for power (Henslin, J. M., …show more content…

Although it seems that majority of the problems associated with organ donation are due to the physical lack or organs, there is another contributing factor. Even if there were an unlimited amount of organs available for transplantation, many uninsured and poor patients still couldn 't receive their transplant. These groups of people do not have equal access to post-transplant immunosuppressive medications. These medications are very expensive, so therefore the wealthy and well-insured do have an advantage on the national waiting list, just because they can afford these medications (AMA, 20017). Without having these immunosuppressants, an equal opportunity to live is not guaranteed, even though a patient may receive the new organ. Although seemingly fair and equal, when looked at through the lense of a conflict theorist, organ donation has many problems and

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