Proposal (How to increase organ donating in the United States) - Essay Example

In 2005, 7,593 deceased donors provided 21,215 organs for transplantation, and there were 6,896 living donors. But this growth lags far behind the increasing need, as approximately 40,000 individuals are added to the U.S. transplant waiting list each year, with a net increase of about 6,000 people over the prior year. At the start of 2006, more than 90,000 people were waiting to receive organs." (News) There is a wide figurative gap between availability of organs and the number of patients waiting for them.

If not given immediate attention, human mortality will reach to even higher summit and still rising. A number of proposals have been put forward to dramatically increase organ and tissue donation in the United States. One proposal has been to provide financial incentives to donors or their families. Another proposal to increase rates of organ and tissue donation is presumed consent. This is "an opt-out system in which everyone is considered to be a donor unless they take appropriate steps to declare themselves a nondonor.

" (Gallup Organization, 2005). Counteracting misinformation through public education is also one of the suggested options. Mandated choice also offers "an alternative to obtaining consent from the family by returning control to the individual. This plan would require all adults to record their wishes about posthumous organ donation and would consider those wishes binding." (Spital, 1996). As mentioned by James F. Childress, John Allen Hollingsworth Professor of Ethics, professor of medical education, and director, Institute for Practical Ethics and Public Life, University of Virginia, Charlottesville in the News of Institute of Medicine of the National Academies last May 2, 2006, the "best approaches are to pursue ways to increase donations based on circulatory determination of death, to enhance public education about the value of organ donation, to increase opportunities for people to opt in, and to sustain quality improvements in the organ donation system.

" These mentioned approaches are the result of government's examination of a wide range of proposals to increase rates of organ donation. Surely, the mentioned approaches will dramatically increase the figure of organ donation, in short term basis. This therefore, does not guarantee a steady and effective supply of organs in the long run. Most organs come from deceased donors whose deaths were clinically found to be neurologic-"irreversible loss of activity in the brain, including in the brain stem" (News) and circulatory-"irreversible loss of heart function that leads to permanent cessation of blood circulation" (News) and therefore eligible for the cause.

Circulatory determination of death still has to consider and evaluate the ethical implications of deceased organ donation. On the other hand, increasing opportunities for people to opt in may work. People are now considering their organs to be donated. In a 2005 National Public Opinion Survey on Organ Donation, this was manifested when 52.7% of Americans have granted permission for donation of organs or tissues on a driver's license or an organ donor card. The statistics represents "a significant increase since 1993 when only 28% had granted permission for donation on a driver's license or an organ donor card" (Gallup Organization, 2005), and yet this number does