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Ethics of organ donations
Ethics of organ donations
Ethics of organ donations
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Most people, when thinking of something that is “wrong” have an immediate definition that leads them to classify that action as criminal. Labels tend to be thrown around with no forethought and definitions of simple words become obscured. To form an effective definition for criminal, one must ask, is that action legitimately “criminal” or is it just, perhaps, frowned upon? The basis of something that is criminal can often be broken up by its risk of punishment by law, its explicit illegalness, and its defiance of societal norms. Organ selling is the action of harvesting human organs and selling them for profit without medical consent, and it is, in fact, criminal. There has been a rise in black-market organ trafficking throughout the past decade. With …show more content…
For these desperate individuals, they can become criminals, or they will die a slow death. The punishment for violating this law in the
United States is five years of imprisonment and/or a 50,000 dollar fine, per the National Organ
Transplant Act of 1984. This punishment is minimal considering the alternative, which drives people even further to become a “criminal” to remain alive.
The most explicit way to identify a criminal activity would be its risk of punishment by law. Having a jurisdiction sanction an act by creating a law against it, there will be no doubt about whether it is legal or not. To discourage people from breaking these laws, enforcement agencies impose punishments for breaking any law that is violated regardless of the reason.
Professors Jung, Ahn-Redding, and Allison (2014) emphasize that “Criminal Code was developed to effectively provide every offense with a corresponding range of sanctions” (p. 342).
CRIMINAL 3
The code can be understood in the sense that its purpose is to provide living guidelines to promote a set behavior. This purpose relates to organ selling in the sense that it goes against our accepted code and it is punishable by
Through the entire essay she gives reasons and counterarguments of selling organs. At the very beginning of the paper, she clearly states her outlook, which is “Governments should not ban the sales o...
Yearly, thousands die from not receiving the organs needed to help save their lives; Anthony Gregory raises the question to why organ sales are deemed illegal in his piece “Why legalizing organ sales would help to save lives, end violence”, which was published in The Atlantic in November of 2011. Anthony Gregory has written hundreds of articles for magazines and newspapers, amongst the hundreds of articles is his piece on the selling of organs. Gregory states “Donors of blood, semen, and eggs, and volunteers for medical trials, are often compensated. Why not apply the same principle to organs? (p 451, para 2)”. The preceding quote allows and proposes readers to ponder on the thought of there being an organ
Richard A. Epstein’s “Thinking the Unthinkable: Organ Sales” (2005) is an argument trying to convince people that selling human organs is acceptable in order to increase the availability for those in need of an organ transplant. Epstein says money will motivate more people to donate their organs to those in need. He also looks at the argument from the point of the recipient of the organ and argues that the expense of buying an organ will not increase the price of getting an organ transplant.
In Mackay’s article, “the selling of organs is morally wrong and violates the dignity of the human person”. Most likely, this statement was believed by a healthy individual not in need of a vital organ to save their life. We often think that morals and ethics apply to our daily lives but when fear gets in the way of all of that, what do we stand for? How can we face death with a straight perception if we know a way to keep us from dying? Some might say that it is immoral and that the sales only benefit the rich. Mackay explains how “it only helps the rich but exploits the poorer people of third world countries”. If a person is going to such extreme measure, would it be moral to be done out of the goodness of their heart instead of the reason to gain a certain lump of money? With all of that said, we always hear a saying that “you cant put a price on your life” but in this situation, Mackay clearly proves
Organ sales and donation are a controversial topic that many individuals cannot seem to agree upon. However, if someone close; a family member, friend, or someone important in life needed a transplant, would that mindset change? There are over one hundred and nineteen thousand men, women, and children currently waiting on the transplant list, and twenty-two of them die each day waiting for a transplant (Organ, 2015). The numbers do not lie. Something needs to be done to ensure a second chance at life for these individuals. Unfortunately, organ sales are illegal per federal law and deemed immoral. Why is it the government’s choice what individuals do with their own body? Organ sales can be considered an ethical practice when all sides of the story are examined. There are a few meanings to the word ethical in this situation; first, it would boost the supply for the
The uncontainable despair of the weeping and screaming parents entering a room full of body bags containing the altered remains of their children. In a room drained with blood and surrounding fridges for the maintenance of the ejected organs, everything seems miserably surreal(“Children Kidnapped for Their Organs”). This is only one of the discovered cases of the daily dozens of people killed for organ harvestation. Adding up to ten thousand illegal operations in 2012 which translates to hourly sales (Samadi). These abhorrent acts add up as crimes against humanity which are triggered by a numerous amount of reasons; in order to stop these constant atrocities we must uncover the root of the causes.
A pittance for your kidney? It’s highly unlikely that anyone would answer yes to that question; however what if someone offered significantly more than a pittance? A thousand dollars, or perhaps even five thousand dollars? Although the buying and selling of organs is illegal on American soil, it’s no secret that the opportunity exists in other countries around the world. “In America, we have waiting list for people who are trying to get kidneys, there they have people who are on a wait list to sell their kidneys” (Gillespie). It’s quite incredible how a country cut off from western civilization, like Iran, has found such an innovative way to encourage organ donation. In American society one needs to “opt in” if they wish to participate in the
Bindel, J. (2013, July 1). Organ trafficking: a deadly trade - Telegraph. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/10146338/Organ-trafficking-a-deadly-trade.html
Death raises many questions but leaves humankind with few answers. Overall it’s an avoided topic because it reminds us of our own mortality. With the help of modern medicine, the death of a loved one can be the saving grace for another’s life. Ironically those restricted from this life giving ability are those with the least regard for the sanctity of life, murderers. Currently, there is little to no strict policy regarding the donation of prisoners organs, it’s typically dealt with on a case by case basis. As a result of this loosely constructed course of action, those who ultimately pay for its disorganized structure are in fact those most in need of organs. Thus, a more rigid policy needs to be enacted especially in the case of murderers, who are condemned to be executed and as a consequence their organs as well. It’s a fact that convicted murderers have little to no rights when it comes to their bodies, however it’s a shame that the justice system doesn’t utilize this to save parts of
Forced labor and prostitution are widely known about, but some of the less-known reasons have to do with forced marriages and organ trading. The black market organ trade is not just something that was made up for novels and movies. Kidneys, livers, and any other organs that can be taken and reused are up for grabs. Traffickers will often try to bully their captives into willingly giving up an organ for free. Some captors will actually offer to pay the donator for their organ, but that usually ends up with the “donor” getting paid less than was agreed upon, and they are still being held against their will. In some cases the victim is knocked out, operated on, and left without an organ or
Organ Sale is the exchange of human organs for money. This topic is very debatable because some people view organ sales as morally wrong mainly due to the view that only the wealthy will be able to afford the purchase of organs. In addition, many believe those living in poverty will be taken advantage of because they need the money. The selling of human organs can be beneficial to everybody and should be legal. By making organ sales legal it will give individual donors a better financial life, create a safer environment for those who sell their organs, make organ transplants available to more people and most importantly will save many lives.
One of the most important and prevalent issues in healthcare discussed nowadays is the concern of the organ donation shortage. As the topic of organ donation shortages continues to be a growing problem, the government and many hospitals are also increasingly trying to find ways to improve the number of organ donations. In the United States alone, at least 6000 patients die each year while on waiting lists for new organs (Petersen & Lippert-Rasmussen, 2011). Although thousands of transplant candidates die from end-stage diseases of vital organs while waiting for a suitable organ, only a fraction of eligible organ donors actually donate. Hence, the stark discrepancy in transplantable organ supply and demand is one of the reasons that exacerbate this organ donation shortage (Parker, Winslade, & Paine, 2002). In the past, many people sought the supply of transplantable organs from cadaver donors. However, when many ethical issues arose about how to determine whether someone is truly dead by either cardiopulmonary or neurological conditions (Tong, 2007), many healthcare professionals and transplant candidates switched their focus on obtaining transplantable organs from living donors instead. As a result, in 2001, the number of living donors surpassed the number of cadaver donors for the first time (Tong, 2007).
The State of the International Organ Trade. (2007, December). Retrieved April 24, 2011, from World Health Organization: http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/8512/06-039370/en/#R43
People consider trafficking to be only in the form of sex, but trafficking actually has many different categories. Human trafficking is defined as people who sell or trade their bodies, or other people’s bodies for different purposes like, forced labor, sex, forced marriage, and even organs. Trafficking of any kind is considered a crime in the United States and every other country in the world except Iran because it is a violation of human rights. Although trafficking is illegal, it still takes place all over the world and statistics say that trafficking brings in approximately 32 billion dollars of international trade per year. Out of all the different forms of trafficking, organ trafficking is the most dangerous. The compensation of organ donors was legal until 1984 when the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984 was put into place. Many people turn to buying organs because there is a shortage of organs and some patients may be on the organ transplant list for years. Because there is such a shortage of available organs for transplantation, many people turn to buying or selling organs on the black market illegally. If trafficking was legalized with regulations, there would rarely be a need to use the black market. Even though the 32 billion dollars that the black market makes each year would rapidly diminish, the money would be spent in other places, and legally. Many people argue that a human life should be invaluable but by legalizing the trafficking of organs, the list for organ transplants would slowly disappear. If the sale of organs was legal with heavy regulations, many more organs would be donated; therefore, many more lives would be saved all over the world.
Trafficking in humans is a massive underground industry throughout the United States as well as close to home, mainly Chicago and it’s suburbs. “Human Trafficking is the recruiting, harboring,moving or obtaining a person by force, fraud or coercion, for the purposes of involuntary servitude, debt bondage or sexual exploitation( Human Trafficking in Illinois ).” Human Trafficking is one of the largest and is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world. Annually, 9.5 billion dollars of profits are generated from trafficking humans worldwide. “Persons do not have to have been transported internationally to be considered victims of trafficking” (Facts about Human Trafficking).