Organ Donation and Forest Depletion Depicted in Fitzhugh’s The Organ Grinders

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Organ Donation and Forest Depletion Depicted in Fitzhugh’s The Organ Grinders

On the back of my drivers license there is a box which will allow me to donate organs if I wish to do so. Upon first receiving my license I didn’t know whether to sign it or where I could find three witnesses to watch me sign. Modern science is allowing people to live longer than ever before, and transplanting failed organs is another method to preserve our frail lives. The problem with human organ transplantation is there is never enough supply to meet the high demand. With organ transplants being a problem in our society, the diminishing rain forest is another pressing issue. It has been estimated that our rain forests could disappear within 40 years at our current logging rate (Raintree, 2004). The reason we were always told to recycle and ‘save a tree’ is because the rain forests provide our breathing air. The rain forests provide a home for many animals and removing the animals from their home will cause extinction. In the novel The Organ Grinders, Paul Symon the main character, observes the apparent problem that exists in rain forest depletion and with organ transplantation. With a few significant changes, the damage done by these technologies can be minimized and life be treasured.

As an adolescent Paul Symon proposed a plan to Jerry Landis who was the owner of Landaq, a biotechnology corporation. Once Landis got a photo with Paul to make him feel good and got him to leave, Landis and his photographer burst into laughter. “Then he saw Jerry Landis drop his proposal into the wastebasket. And with that simple act, Jerry Landis taught Paul a painful lesson…it wasn’t the worst thing Jerry Landis would ever do to him.”(Fitzhugh,...

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...e Organ Grinders. New York: Avon, 1998

“John J. Fung” Transplanting Animal Organs Into Humans Is Feasible 1999 Nov http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1272/is_2654_128/ai_57564084

“Alan H. Berger” Xenotransplantation: The Ethics, the Science, the Risks 1996 March 15 http://articles.animalconcerns.org/ar-voices/archive/xeno_risks.html

“Alexander Tabarrok” A Moral Solution to the Organ Shortage 2001 February http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?ID=283

“savetherainforest.org” Facts about the rainforest http://www.savetherainforest.org/savetherainforest_007.htm

“wikipedia” Rainforest 2004http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainforest

“rain-tee.com” Rain forest facts 2004 http://www.rain-tree.com/facts.htm

“Robert E. Michler” Xenotransplantation: Risks, Clinical Potential, and Future Prospects 1996 March http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol2no1/michler.htm

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