Should Purchasing and Selling Organs be Legalized - Essay Example

Purchasing and Selling Organs Should be legalized Many countries have laws prohibiting purchasing and selling of body parts, this includes payment of non-regenerative tissues that are used in transplantation such as the heart and kidney. The United States law divides body parts into different categories, and prohibits payment of nonrenewable tissues. Buying and selling of body organs has raised questions concerning law and ethics (Boyer 313). Legal characterization of organs for commercial purpose has an increasing mixed up history. The common law did not provide an individual with property rights in human corpse, therefore, did not allow a person to transfer body parts for selling purposes. Later American courts adopted this idea and rejected property rights property rights of the human body, rejecting quasi property rights of a human corpse. There have been few changes on the debate on buying and selling of body parts, and with the exception of the rule allowing no payments of body parts that is mirrored in many state laws, many people propose toughening of law structures present prohibiting the purchase and sell of body parts. On the contrary of this, there are individuals who favor narrowing of the law allowing the sale and purchase of body parts, as well as doing away with them. United States Blood Market The blood supply system in the United States consists of several organizations having different managing structures and philosophies. Blood collection activities are of two types: blood collection and supply system that involves all the cellular elements and plasma, and the collection of the plasma portion of the whole blood as well as subsequent manufacturing of derivatives that are produced from the plasma. Blood donations in United States are of different types, the most common being whole blood donation that an individual can do at any blood drive and blood centers. This type of donation can be done every 56 days with volunteers being required to be of at least age of 16 and above, weighing 110 pounds and be in good health. Under rare circumstances is whole blood transfused to patients because only a portion of the blood is needed, hence this blood undergoes processing to be divided into components before being used. A survey by Mayo Clinic indicates that while there are 5% of donors who qualify to donate blood across America, the number of transfusions increases at the rate of 9% yearly. Double Red cell donation involves the separation of blood by cell separator immediately after collection, separating and collecting Red Blood Cells. Other blood components are mixed with saline and given back to the patient. This type of donation is meant for surgery or trauma patients, and the donors are allowed to donate once after meeting certain weight or height criteria. These types of donors donate through pheresis and are able to double the amount of blood donation at one time, donations done thrice a year. This type of donation takes time and its pros include the donor being hydrated after donation, the process uses small needle, and the donor is not called as often due to longer deferral period. Pheresis donation can either be done to collect plasma or platelets, and the machine therefore collects measured amount of desired blood component while the remaining component is returned to the donor. Platelet pheresis donations are important for leukemia and transplant patients because they help stop bleeding and donation of platelets can be done 24 times a year. The donor, however, is exposed to hypocalcaemia risk that is caused by anticoagulant that is used to prevent clotting in the apparatus. Recurrent platelet donations results in demineralization of the process of platelet production (Transfusion Medicine 20). Autologous blood donation is the collection of a patient’s blood for transfusion, especially a patient going for a surgery and may require blood during the surgery. Blood is collected as early as 42 days before the surgery takes place. Autologous blood has an advantage of the patient using its own blood, even though it does not eliminate risks of bacterial infection. Blood safety is maintained through screening, having a safe donation experience, carrying out sophisticated testing by using nucleic acid amplification testing, data management, and good manufacturing processes with stringent process controls (Graham and Ferguson 991). The involvement of the Red Cross in the blood market is an advantage because it has tried to enhance a fair plasma business by acting as a steward of plasma in most parts of America. Moreover, there is a great strength in the American system that has provided room for provision of human services by non-profit organizations. However, it can be argued that a disadvantage of the current blood systems it that it has enabled an increase in errors at the blood banks over the last few years resulting from technicians being overworked in an effort to keep up with the testing of virus present in blood, AIDS and hepatitis. In addition, the potential risks present in the black markets are like ticking bomb in the way the sales are taking place through clearing houses that are operated by Red Cross and other blood-collecting groups. Spot markets are currently present and hundreds of blood sales occur yearly. Purchasing and Selling Organs Selling body organs enable people to donate gladly to patients in need of a specific body organ; moreover, money got from selling body organs drive people to donate body parts making each of the parties better off. In Iran, 76% of people donating kidneys are total strangers, while 12% of all the donations are from deceased donors. Comparing this to United States, 65% of kidney transplants done in 1994 were from deceased donors while less than 1% come from anonymous donors. This decreases the waitlist for people in need of organs, saving many lives; however, while the wait list of organ donation may be reduced, the idea of debating on legalizing sale of body organs is offensive and insane. This is because humans are seen as carnivores; the strong, powerful and rich will devour the weak, and if we continue this way, we will devour ourselves to extinction (Griffin and Scholar 503). Furthermore, many underprivileged people around the world, especially from developing countries, are enticed with significant compensations on sale of organs. Most of these cases the hosts are robbed while unconscious; besides this, there are several cases in which pain suppressors are not used, especially in third world countries. Studies that have been done in several parts of the world show that people who require body organs can pay up to 200,000 dollars for a body organ, but pay the poor just about 5,000 dollars for the same body part. Thus, with laws in place to ensure the seller is healthy and protected, frauds and abuses would be curtailed, since the government can regulate this through clinics and approved doctors having qualifications to handle organ transplant. By contrast, we find most of the things that are sold on the internet, and by legalizing the sale of body organs means, we allow black market activities to take place over the internet. This provokes the killing or kidnaping of people to get body organs; it is for this reason the legalizing of sale of body parts is a bad idea. For instance, 8% of the transplants that were carried out in 17 private clinics present in Tijuana and Ciudad were from foreigners, some from the United States (Cindy 294). In addition, people are suffering to the extent of dying because they lack a certain body organ, and giving body organ to an individual in need makes a person feel satisfied, having relieved their problem. Although, Islam does not confine charity to wealth alone, but any kind act that benefits another individual this act may involve donation of body parts, and can be considered a high form of charity because human body is more precious than wealth. Therefore, it is an individual’s choice to donate a body part for assisting a person suffering; even though donation of body parts is beneficial as it saves lives, it should not be permitted because the patient may not be able to pay for the organ donated. Therefore, Islam restricts permission to donate organs on the basis that it should benefit the receiver and not cause harm to the donor or affect any rights of the donor’s spouse and dependents (Al-Qaradhawi 2). Moreover, it is important to legalize selling of body organs, especially those that are a pair e.g. kidneys, where a donor can spare one without affecting the donor’s health. The government must give regulations regarding this as well as a fair compensation to be given to a donor. There are different reasons for selling a body organ; one of these can be financial consideration among the poor; therefore, selling body organs benefits the rich only and could even cause a boundary lines to be broken. There are similarities between selling body organs and a prostitute selling her body for money; therefore, should be prohibited, as a donor willing to give away a body part should do it in willingness and not by the intention to get money. In conclusion, despite the donation of blood being legal there are controversies on sale of body organs irrespective of being a multibillion business. Many people contend that black markets are exploitative in view of organ sales; however, they are not exploitative, except for the unpleasant part of trade, which is illegal. Thus, the prohibition on selling and buying of organs will drive back-market profits and turn the market into an organized crime, which will lead to an increase in murder and abduction cases. Therefore, selling and buying of organs should be legalized in view of the above risks and the benefits associated discussed, to ensure that the business is controlled. Works Cited Al-Qaradhawi Sheikh Yusuf. ShariaFatwa on the Transplantation of Organs. Organ Transparent Committee Hamad Medical Corporation.Salavi International. n.d. Boyer, J. Randall Gifts of the Heart . . . and Other Tissues: Legalizing the Sale of Human Organs and Tissues. Brigham Young University Law Review 2012.1 (2012): 313-41. Cindy, Moore. Body Brokers in Organ Trafficking. Crime and Justice International. 17.52 (2001), 294-1635 Graham, Ian D., et al. "Autologous Versus Allogeneic Transfusion: Patients Perceptions and Experiences." Canadian Medical Association. Journal 160.7 (1999): 989-95. Griffin, Anne and Scholar, Clegg. Kidneys on Demand. BMJ. 334.7592 (2007): 502-505. Mayo Clinic. Did You Know?. 2013. Web 26 March 2013. "Transfusion Medicine; Double Donations Boosting National Blood Supply." Blood Weekly (2002): 20- Read More