Sale of human organs – critical response
Whether the issue of living organ donors should be legalized remains a heated debate for many decades. A number of different viewpoints on the matter are presented in the article “Sale of human organs should be legalised, say surgeons” by Lewis Smith on The independent (Smith, 2011). In this paper, I would provide a critical response to the article. In general, this writing is informative and well supported by viewpoints of various experts.
The article begins with the introduction that leading surgeons support the idea of making the organ market legalized to save a rising number of people who die each year before obtaining an organ. Then the author mentioned a serious concern that a legalized market may lead a huge number of poor people to sell their organs to ease financial problems as the other side of the coin. In the main part of the article, the author quotes the opinions of a wide variety of professors on the question of "why such a market should or should not legalized?" (Smith, 2011) The advocates argue that a legalized organ market will help eradicate the black market, deal with the shortage of organs for transplantation, and reduce illegal trafficking. Additionally, the opinions that being paid does not “nullify altruism” and a person has the right to determine what to do with their body parts are also mentioned as arguments. After that, the author moves on to the arguments by the opponents, who worry that paying some people would affect the existing decreased donor program and living donor program. It is also believed that major ethical barriers would be broken and it is very risky if an organ market is legalized. The article ends with the mention of an extension to the organ transplant program launched by the Government and its effect to the patients in need of organs.
There are three main strong points in this article. First of all, it has collected a range of ideas from a wide variety of high-ranked...