Courtesy of Joanna MacKay. Used with permission. Joanna MacKay 11/30/04 STS.011 Paper 3 Organ Sales Will Save Lives There are thousands of people dying to buy a kidney, and thousands of people dying to sell a kidney. It seems a match made in heaven. So why are we standing in the way? Governments should not ban the sale of human organs; they should regulate it. Lives should not be wasted; they should be saved. About 350,000 Americans suffer from end-stage renal disease1, a state of kidney disorder so advanced that the organ stops functioning altogether. There are no miracle drugs that can revive a failed kidney, leaving dialysis and kidney transplantation as the only possible treatments. Dialysis is harsh, expensive, and, worst of all, only temporary. Acting as an artificial kidney, dialysis mechanically filters the blood of a patient. It works, but not well. With treatment sessions lasting three hours, several times a week, those dependent on dialysis are, in a sense, shackled to a machine for the rest of their lives. Adding excessive stress to the body, dialysis causes patients to feel increasingly faint and tired, usually keeping them from work and other normal activities. Kidney transplantation, on the other hand, is the closest thing to a cure that anyone could hope for. Today the procedure is both safe and reliable, 1 http://www.emedicinehealth.com/articles/24500-1.asp
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causing few complications. With better technology for confirming tissue matches and new anti-rejection drugs, the surgery is simple. But those hoping for a new kidney have high hopes indeed. In the year 2000 alone, 2583 Americans died while waiting for a kidney transplant; worldwide the number of deaths is around 50,000.2 With the sale of organs outlawed in almost every country, the number of living donors willing to part with a kidney for free is small. When no family member is a suitable candidate for donation, the patient is placed on a deceased donors list, relying on the organs from...