Organ Donation in the United States of America - Essay Example

Organ Donation in the USA Affiliation Since the start of human kidney transplantation, organ donation is linked to unpaid giving. A donor should not donate an organ to realize material gain. This paper will discuss the manner in which the issue of organ transplantation has spread to different corners of the world, and the ways in which the popularity of the practice has led to increased reliance on organ transplantation, particularly among patients with incurable medical conditions. The paper shows that the effectiveness and reliability of the organ transportation practice is highly dependent on the human development index (HDI) of a given country. Advanced countries have managed to create a balance between deceased and living organ donation while developing countries are accused of practices such as transplant tourism and organ commercialization leading to ineffective organ transplant practices. As such, the paper proposes tax policy implementation in order to address the issues facing the organ transplant practice in an effective manner globally. Introduction As replacement human kidneys was initialized in more than the past six decades, particularly the introduction of deceased-donation systems in the U.S. the Western model associated with organ donation is heavily linked to unpaid giving. This form of donation takes place due to altruistic reasons. This means that the donor of an organ does not do so to realize material gain. Since organ transplantation has spread to different parts of the world, the unpaid donation model has not followed the different social, medical, and legal settings. Nevertheless, in the past 25 years, professional and intergovernmental organizations have come forth to make organ donation a global ethical norm. Since this practice remains tenuous, the gains made to safeguard the interests of susceptible, desperate organ sellers from exploitation may be lost easily (Capron, 2014). Discussion Technical Aspect Presently, organ transplantation is carried in more than 100 countries globally, although the rate at which it is carried out varies tremendously. In 2011, for instance, approximately 112,631 organ transplants were reported worldwide, an 11.6 percent from 2008, after the adoption of the Istanbul declaration targeting transplant tourism and organ transplant. Deceased organ replacement grew by more than 5.5 percent annually during this period. As such, World Health Organization (WHO) proposed that the organ transplantation practice should be implemented to its utmost therapeutic potential. Here, living donors are essential, particularly if they are legally, genetically, or emotionally associated with their recipients to eliminate commercial relationships. Between 2008 and 2011, this practice grew at a cumulative rate of 17.4 percent. Overall, more than 37,233 kidney replacements were gathered from dead donors in the year 2008 and at least 43,714 in 2011. In certain regions, the rise was more impressive compared to others. In the Eastern Mediterranean Region, the growth was 50 percent while in the Western Pacific Region it was 33 percent (Capron, 2014). Regardless of the initiatives by WHO as well as other specialized bodies’ efforts to boost the practical competence of medical amenities globally to undertake high-tech medical processes, such as transportation and development of governmental and government infrastructure to support deceased people organ donation, living donation serves as the norm in most parts around the world. As such, the overall transportation pattern varies around the world (Capron, 2014). Table 1 below reveals transplantation data by WHO according to regional groupings. Table 1. 2009 Kidney and Liver Transplants (Capron, 2014). The data in Table 1 reveals absolute numbers as well as proportion for every million population in the case of liver as well as kidney replacements. When combined, the figures reflect the overall total of liver and kidney transplants reported in the year 2009. In this case, the alteration between average rates of population in which population takes place in the lowest-ranking region (Sub-Saharan Africa) and highest-ranking region (Americas) is less than 188 fold in the case of liver transplants while in the case of kidney transplants it is less than fifty (Capron, 2014). These figures are essential in helping to gain general understanding regarding regional patterns but additional data is dependent on certain countries and sources of organs. The regions with highest organ transplantation rates equal to or greater than 75 million per population are Western European countries and the United States. The following group ranging between 50 and 74.9 million for every group of potential donors comprise of the remainder of Western Europe, Canada, Turkey, as well as Australia. Here, it is true that all these countries rank very high in terms of HDI (Human Development Index). Nonetheless, Turkey is an exceptional case as its scores are quite high. In addition, nations having rates of kidney transfer beyond 40 million for every group of willing donors rank14 in the HDI level (Capron, 2014). In various ways, nonetheless, any transfer rates that establish a close relationship between data on organs gathered from deceased and living contributors do not reveal vital information, particularly with respect to payment for kidneys and transplant tourism, which in regions outside China are unrelated to living donors. Among those nations close to the top rank at a rate where kidneys are gathered from either dead or alive donors for every million willing individuals. Only the U.S. is considered the highest-ranking living contribution (ninth) and deceased donation (eighth) according to the 2011 report (Capron, 2014). In addition to the United States, Norway is one of the countries ranking at the worldwide top ten of living kidney donation (twenty-third) and deceased kidney donation (twenty-second). Many nations depend on a single mode of donation or another, even in the case of Netherlands, which ranks fifth globally in terms of deceased and living donors. It ranks fifth for global kidney transplantation and twenty-first for deceased donation. This rate is far behind its European neighbors (Liberman, 2015). A large number of countries have been considered as hotspots of transport tourism, including Turkey, Egypt, Mexico, and Costa Rica. These countries appear on top of nations, which have the largest number of individuals willing to donate their organs. Other nations have served as regions where kidney purchase from living people is prevalent, such as Pakistan, India, and the Philippines. This is because a large number of transplants carried out in these countries are performed on foreigners. Since these countries lack comprehensive programs to facilitate for organ transplant, the low rates of kidney transplant reflect a modest total of processes carried out among well insured and wealth domestic and foreign patients divided by the large number of populations (Liberman, 2015). Public Policy In the United States, there is a considerable shortage of transplantable organs, making it one of the key health care policy challenges in the country. Presently, approximately 100,000 individuals are waiting hopefully to receive an organ from a willing donor. Various strategies prevail whose goal is to address help address the issue of organ shortage, including improvement of desensitization techniques in the case of blood groups incompatible with transplantation, utilization of organs from marginal donors, development of donor-recipient match algorithms, and best practicing sharing for organ procurement (Ventkataramani, Martin, Vijayan, & Wllen, 2012). Although these strategies have played a key role in expanding the pools of deceased and living donors, the rise in organ demand continues to exceed growth supply growth. Based on the steady growth witnessed between 1990 and 2004, the living donor’s number has remained stagnant for more than five years. This issue has led to the introduction of a financial incentive that will help to raise donation rates, particularly those targeting living donors. In the U.S., absolute organs’ payment is strictly prohibited, raising the issue of ethics in the practice. Nonetheless, there is considerable support for financial incentives, such as medical costs, compensating alive donors for transportation initiatives, and forgone wages linked to the donation initiative (Ventkataramani, Martin, Vijayan, & Wllen, 2012). For instance, the Wisconsin law in 2004 is designed to address these issues, making it possible for alive donors to subtract approximately $10,000 in order to facilitate for transportation expenses, lost wage due to donation act, and lodging. Other individuals argue that the policy is unethical as it can coerce individuals into donation and break tax codes, especially with regard to the expenses affiliated with living donation. The policy has currently been diffused to different states in America to make the process of organ transplantation more efficient and reliable (Ventkataramani, Martin, Vijayan, & Wllen, 2012). Currently, it is not possible to determine whether tax policies can do enough to help eliminate barriers to living donation to create room for sufficient organ supply. For instance, regardless of the establishment of formal organ sales markets in the United States, they remain politically unpleasant. To incent the donation of living organs, 16 states in the U.S. have implemented tax policies, which will help minimize travel as well as other associated incidental costs that potential donors face (Liberman, 2015). The implementation of tax policies has not influenced supply of organs in an appreciable manner. One of the reasons for these is because financial returns from the laws are quite small. Furthermore, the financial burden that that living kidney donors encounter is quite high compared to the surgical approach. Hence, in most cases, the tax deduction value serves as a representative of only a portion of the real costs living donors face. In this case, it is appropriate to introduce policies that reduce financial burdens for living donors considerably, particularly those that increase tax deductions’ value or shifting tax subtractions to tax credits. For the similar dollar amount, therefore, these would gain additional value, and if refundable, they can considerably reduce the tax liability of the payer below zero (Ventkataramani, Martin, Vijayan, & Wllen, 2012). Furthermore, is a large number of people may be unaware of the existence of the policy, challenging them utilize it effectively. After conducting donation campaigns to show that tax incentives dominate in various states, most people lacked knowledge about tax incentives’ eligibility. In this case, it is appropriate to initialize campaign that notifies people about the prevalence of tax incentives in order to help build a pool of donor supply, especially living donors (Ventkataramani, Martin, Vijayan, & Wllen, 2012). Personal Opinion Since organ transplantation is life-saving practice, particularly for conditions considered incurable, I believe that the procedure should follow a series of steps in order to foster better quality life and realize cost-effectiveness in the healing process. I have realized that a number of ethical issues surround the organ transplantation process. Since organ transplantation involves removing an organ from one person to another, it is vital to obtain informed consent from the two involved parties. This practice is essential in terms enhancing ethical practices develop to respect people. In addition, I have noted that trafficking and sale of organs is a major problem facing organ transplantation practice globally. Here, it is appropriate to device ways in which scarcity and shortage of organs can be eliminated to prevent transplantation commercialization. As such, I believe it is appropriate to implement regulations to help curb unethical transplantation practices. For instance, by allowing people do donate organs for altruistic reasons, it will be possible to increase organs for transplantation. Furthermore, I have noted that fairness and equity are not viewed in terms of commodification, leading to inequitable access to transplantation organs. In order to address this issue, therefore, I believe it is appropriate to ensure that donors are selected fairly while following an explicit criterion that does not exercise ant form of exploitation. This way, the transplantation process would be effective and free from any form of criticism globally. References Capron, A. M. (2014). Six decades of organ donation and the challenges that shifting the United States to a market system would create around the world. Retrieved from http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4693&context=lcp Liberman, A. (2015). A promise acceptance model of organ donation. Social Theory and Practice, 41(1), 131-148. Ventkataramani, A. S., Martin, E. G., Vijayan, A., & Wllen, J. R. (2012). The impact of tax policies on living organ donations in the United States. American Journal of Transplantation, 2012(12), 2133-2140. Read More