94 lines
5.1 KiB
Standard ML
94 lines
5.1 KiB
Standard ML
Copyright 1983
|
|
NPG,Ltd.
|
|
SELLING HUMAN ORGANS
|
|
|
|
ISSUE: Should we allow human organs, such as kidneys, to be bought and sold
|
|
like ordinary commodities? (1) No, we should prohibit anyone from buying or
|
|
selling organs. (2) Yes, the introduction of market-based pricing would help
|
|
alleviate much human suffering and actually reduce the overall economic burden.
|
|
|
|
BACKGROUND: The issue of how to procure human organs covers everything from
|
|
hearts to bone pieces. But most of the controversy so far centers on the most
|
|
"popular" organ transplanted, the kidney. Each year more than 10,000 people
|
|
need new kidneys. But only about 5,000 of these people receive new kidneys,
|
|
mostly because of the shortage of available organs. In theory, there are
|
|
enough organs. Each year there are 20,000 deaths that create potentially
|
|
usable organs. When interviewed in ordinary circumstances, nearly 80% of
|
|
people say that they are willing to donate the organs of a loved one, should
|
|
they die in a fashion which makes them a potential donor. Yet, for reasons
|
|
subject to extensive and intense debate, that generalized willingness to donate
|
|
does not translate into an adequate supply of organs. To fill the gap,
|
|
patients are kept alive by use of expensive dialysis machines. Each year the
|
|
public spends $2 billion through Medicare to support dialysis, which comes to
|
|
about $30,000 per patient per year. In the near future the demand for
|
|
transplant operation likely will skyrocket. The FDA recently approved a new
|
|
drug -- cyclosporin -- which doubles the previous success rate. The demand for
|
|
transplantable organs thus will soar. To meet that anticipated demand several
|
|
firms have proposed establishing a system for locating people willing to donate
|
|
their organs for payment. The firms would then pass on that cost plus their
|
|
own overhead to the patient. One firm estimates that the cost of an organ such
|
|
as a kidney, procured through this system would be about $15,000.
|
|
|
|
POINT: These proposals for setting up "organs for sale" networks cannot be
|
|
tolerated; they must be immediately outlawed. We cannot allow people to sell
|
|
their own organs because that is not only repugnant to decency, it will create
|
|
gruesome blackmarket operations. Moreover, the proposals would exploit poor
|
|
foreigners by encouraging them to sell body parts to rich Americans. We do not
|
|
allow people to sell themselves into slavery; we cannot allow them to sell
|
|
their vital body parts. This goes beyond morality. Living donors of virtually
|
|
any organ increase their risk of death or disease. Moreover, it does not take
|
|
much imagination to conjure up horrible images of hard-hearted relatives of a
|
|
dead person selling the body for cash. With the vast number of potential but
|
|
unused donors, we should redouble our efforts to stimulate voluntary donors,
|
|
not set up "bodyshops."
|
|
|
|
COUNTERPOINT: We should not only permit but encourage private firms to
|
|
locate organs for donation. Provided that he does not kill himself, a person's
|
|
body is his own to do with it as he wants. As a matter of fundamental
|
|
principle, government must not be allowed to tell a person how to use his or
|
|
her body. The proposed private donor systems are not fundamentally different
|
|
from firms that pay for blood donations. Few would argue that these
|
|
profit-making operations do not help to supply vital blood products. And yet
|
|
when originally started, the donation-for-pay stimulated intense debate. Now
|
|
we can see that the original controversy proved vastly overblown. A careful
|
|
examination of the economics will show that the cost to the patient and the
|
|
public to purchase organs is far less a burden than that which they bear today.
|
|
According to current estimates, the cost of a purchased kidney would be less
|
|
than the cost of six months on dialysis machine and subject many patients to
|
|
far less agony. And, costs aside, many people today die for lack of donors;
|
|
these lives would be saved if we would take steps to increase the supply of
|
|
available organs.
|
|
|
|
|
|
QUESTIONS:
|
|
|
|
o If organ sales are allowed, how would you put a price on the value of a
|
|
human organ?
|
|
|
|
o If organ sales are allowed should there be mechanism, perhaps through
|
|
insurance or government assistance, that allows all people to obtain organs
|
|
regardless of their financial means?
|
|
|
|
o Would this issue be less controversial if the organ seller were terminally
|
|
ill?
|
|
|
|
o Would it be immoral for a person to sell his organs for implant in
|
|
strangers?
|
|
|
|
o Is it better to keep a person on an artificial organ than to give them a
|
|
transplant from an organ bought from a donor?
|
|
|
|
|
|
REFERENCES:
|
|
FDA Approves Drug to Aid Organ Transplants, John Wilke, The
|
|
Washington Post, September 3, 1983, p.A1
|
|
Va. Doctor Plans Company to Arrange Sale of Human Kidneys,
|
|
Margaret Engel, The Washington Post, September 19, 1983, p.A9
|
|
Doctors Decry Plan to Buy, Sell Kidneys, Judie Glave,
|
|
Associated Press, The Washington Post, September 24, 1983
|
|
|
|
(Note: Please leave your thoughts -- message or uploaded comments -- on this
|
|
issue on Tom Mack's RBBS, The Second Ring --- (703) 759-5049. Please address
|
|
them to Terry Steichen of New Perspectives Group, Ltd.)
|
|
|
|
|