Organ Harvesting Practice Issues - Research Paper Example

Organ Harvesting Organ harvesting refers to the practice of removing usable organs from someone who is dead so that they can be transplanted into someone else. There is some dispute over the proper term for this procedure, since it involves delicate ethical and personal issues for many individuals. Some people may prefer the term “organ donation,” which indicates that the organs were willingly surrendered to benefit other people (What is Organ Harvesting?) Organ harvesting or organ trading is a controversial topic because of the serious ethical issues involved in it. Medical science has recently succeeded in replacing defective kidney and heart like human organs with substitute kidneys and hearts taken from other people. Many of the dying people are ready to donate their organs when they realize that they left with no hope of survival. Such people donate their organs in order to save the lives of others who have defected organs. There is no harm in showing such mercy towards diseased people and it should be recognized as a noble act. However, many incidents from all over the world are currently coming out with respect to the forceful seizure of human organs from healthy people. In many cases, doctors conduct unnecessary surgeries and steal the kidney like internal organs and trade it for financial benefits. Even the person whose kidney has been stolen has no possibility of knowing what happened to him after the surgery unless he conducts further scanning or X-ray experiments. This paper briefly analyses various dimensions of organ harvesting. Before discussing anything about organ harvesting it is necessary to discuss something about the state of death. Medical science has different opinions about the concept of death. Some medical experts argue death of a person happens when the brain stops it functioning. On the other hand others are of the view that death occurs when the heart functioning stops. There are many patients whose hearts are still working even though their brain became inactive. In any case, it is better to confirm the heart or brain death first before deciding about organ harvesting. The relatives of the patients can do many things in such situations. They can decide whether to sustain the life of such patients in such no hope conditions or not. Moreover, they can decide whether to donate the organs of such patients to others who are in need of it to save their lives. In any case, the donation of organs with the consent of the dying patient or with the consent of the relatives under certain circumstances can be accepted as a moral thing. “If someone has indicated that he or she wishes to donate organs after death, a transplant team can immediately move in and initiate the organ harvesting process after consent forms are signed by someone with the power of attorney for the patient” (What is Organ Harvesting?) In many cases organ harvesting is conducted forcefully or without the consent of the donor. The reports about forceful organ harvesting or stealing of organs are increasing day by day. No country, irrespective of developed, developing or underdeveloped, seems to be free from the antisocial activities or human right violation like organ stealing or forceful organ harvesting. Reports of forceful organ harvesting are coming from countries like, America, Britain, China, India, Israel etc. Robinson (2008) has reported some shocking incidents of organ stealing from India. Shocked but not surprised. That might be the best way to sum up India's reaction to the revelation this week that a black market organ transplant ring had been harvesting kidneys from poor Indian laborers, sometimes against their wishes, and using them in foreigners desperate for transplants. Police who busted the ring last week say doctors paid as little as $1000 for the kidneys and then sold them for as much as $37,500. The racket, based in Gurgaon, a business center close to the capital, New Delhi, drew victims from as many as eight Indian states and lasted for almost a decade. Police say the black market doctors may have illegally transplanted as many as 500 kidneys (Robinson) With and without consent from the poor villagers, doctors transplanted more than 500 kidneys from the district of Gurgaon. The illiterate villagers do not know the importance of kidneys and doctors convinced them that even one kidney is enough for human body conducting the whole functions of the two kidneys. Doctors gave the villagers offers of financial benefits in order to remove their kidneys. Poor villagers accepted the offer without knowing the consequences of organ harvesting. In some cases, doctors not even took the consent of the villagers while removing their kidneys. Doctors conducted unwanted surgeries even for small diseases and convinced the poor public that the surgery was the only option for their survival. Poor villagers never came to know about the kidney robbery conducted by the doctors. Police raided the operation's main clinic in Gurgaon in January, 2008 and broke up the ring, which spanned five Indian states and involved at least four doctors, several hospitals, two dozen nurses and paramedics and a car outfitted as a laboratory. Subsequent raids uncovered a kidney transplant waiting list with 48 names (Alleged chief of organ harvesting ring seized) China is also not free from the social evil of organ stealing or forceful organ harvesting. Since communist administration blocks the leakage of all the unwanted information, forceful organ stealing or harvesting incidents occurs in China more than what is reported. Prisoners jailed for some criminal activities forced to donate their organs sacrificing their lives for the commercial interests of others. “In early 2006, the first charges of large-scale harvesting--surgical removal of organs while the prisoners were still alive, though of course the procedure killed them--of Falun Gong emerged from Northeast China” (Gutman). The stories of human right violations are coming out from China large in numbers. China recognizes death in a slightly different manner. They always recognize the death only when the heart stops its beating. Doctors in China are using artificial methods to ensure the death of prisoners in order to steal the organs. In other words, doctors can use anesthesia to remove the organs from the bodies of the prisoners, when some prominent people in China are in need of an organ. Israel is also not an exception in illegal or unethical organ harvesting. Weir (2009) has written an article on Counter Punch News letter, August 28-30, 2009, about the illegal and brutal organ harvesting going on in Israel. He has pointed out that Palestinian prisoners are used up for taking organs out of their body for saving the life of Israelis. He has also pointed out an incident in which even a Scottish citizen lost his lost his heart as part of the organ harvesting going on in Israel. In 1998, a Scot named Alisdair Sinclair died under questionable circumstances while in Israeli custody at Ben Gurion airport. His family was informed of the death and told they had three weeks to come up with about $4,900 to fly Sinclair's corpse home. Alisdair’s brother says the Israelis seemed to be pushing a different option: burying Sinclair in a Christian cemetery in Israel, at a cost of about $1,300.”The family scraped up the money, brought the body home, and had an autopsy performed at the University of Glasgow. It turned out that Alisdair’s heart and a tiny throat bone were missing (Weir). The massacres conducted by Israel against Palestinians are infamous and well known to the world. Israel has no hesitation in making use of the organs of Muslims in the bodies of Jews even though, they are reluctant in accepting the bold of others even when they are happens to be in critical conditions. Religious beliefs and customs create no barriers in front of Israelis while stealing the organs of others. One of the most astonishing facts is that Israel has no hesitation in taking the organs of even British people forcefully. Most of the suspected deaths happening in Israel are lead towards organ harvesting. David Emery (n. d.) has pointed out that “A decade or so ago, rumors began spreading in Guatemala to the effect that Americans were kidnapping local children in order to harvest their organs for transplantation in the United States” (Emery). In other words, the proclaimed most civilized country in the world; United Sates is also not free from the guilt of stealing human organs. United States always says more about the importance of protecting human rights. They often blame countries for the human right violations happening there. However, when it comes to America, they keep meaningful silence over the issues like forceful organ harvesting happening in America. Britain is another civilized country from which organ stealing is reported. In the New England Journal of Medicine, doctors at the Denver Children's Hospital describe how they removed hearts from infants 75 seconds after their hearts stopped. The infants were declared dead of heart failure even as their hearts, in new bodies, resume ticking. The federal government funded the procedure; other hospitals are looking to adopt it. The problem with some organ-sustaining measures is that they might technically reverse death. Oxygenation, for example, supplies the circulation whose absence was supposed to be the cause of death. To fix this problem, doctors have learned to block blood flow so that only the organs slated for transplant get oxygen. The rest of the patient remains safely dead (Saleton). In other words, state sponsored organ stealing is taking place in Britain. The government has no hesitation in making use of the hearts of the new born babies for saving the lives of others. In fact the doctors in England devised special mechanisms to remove human organs from dying patients. They have mechanisms to protect the life of hearts and kidney like human organs even if other parts of body becomes dead. From the above descriptions, it is evident that no country seems to be free from organ harvesting. Some countries try to give more humanitarian face to organ harvesting activities whereas others have no such worries. Both legal and illegal human organ harvesting is going on in most of the countries with the silent agreement of the governments. Life is precious and it should be preserved at any cost. However, saving of a life should not be done at the expense of another person’s life. Life is important to all and there is no point in segregating some lives as more valuable than the life of others. Jew’s life and Muslim’s life are equally important and neither of them is superior to other. Most of the illegal organ harvesting is done for commercial purposes or for financial gains. It is impossible to perform organ removal or transplanting without the assistance of a doctor. Medical ethics clearly reminds the doctors that it is the duty of the doctor to protect the health and life of a patient at any cost. Organ robbers or the doctors are forgetting about the ethics in their profession while they engage in activities like illegal or forceful organ harvesting. The intrusion of commercialization can be witnessed at every segment of human life at present and even highly educed and dedicated doctors are not free from the profit making motives. Antisocial elements offer huge money to doctors who establish nexus with them in removing organs forcefully from the bodies of innocent people. Organ brokers have already proven that they are savvy enough to skirt legal roadblocks, and their businesses will continue as the supply of available donor organs remains small and the profits high. Roughly half a million people around the world suffer from kidney failure and many are willing to pay any price for a donor organ. They have two options: wait on impossibly long donation lists or pay someone for a live donor transplant (Carney) To conclude, organ harvesting includes serious ethical issues. Donation of human organs with consent can be justified morally and it should be considered as a noble act. However, forceful organ harvesting or stealing of organs cannot be justified under any circumstances. Life is precious to all and it should be preserved at any cost. At the same time, protection of one’s life should never be at the expense of another’s life. Works Cited 1. “Alleged Chief of Organ Harvesting Ring Seized”. USA Today (2/8/2008). Web. 26 April 2011. 2. Carney, Scott. “The Case for Mandatory Organ Donation”. 2007. Web. 26 April 2011. 3. Emery, David. “The Kidney Thieves”. Web. 26 April 2011. 4. Gutman, Ethan. “China's Gruesome Organ Harvest”. The Weekly Standard Magazine. Nov 24, 2008, Vol. 14, No. 10. Web. 26 April 2011. 5. Robinson, Simon. “India's Black Market Organ Scandal”. 2008. Web. 26 April 2011. TIME CNN. 6. Saleton, William. “The Retreating Boundaries of Organ Harvesting”. Web. 26 April 2011. 7. “What is Organ Harvesting?”. 2011. Web. 26 April 2011. 8. Weir, Alison. “Israeli Organ Harvesting”. Counter Punch News letter August 28-30, 2009. Web. 26 April 2011. 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