Argumentative Essay: The Ethics Of Organ Donation

Organs typically have a short transplant time, lungs and hearts have 5 hours or less, liver and intestines have around 10 hours or fewer etc. In his essay, Krauthammer talks mainly about kidneys. Kidneys can typically stay 19-20 hours outside the body and a max of 35 hours before it goes bad. With a dead person’s kidney, the kidney can also get damaged in transportation. This time gets less because the doctor has to make sure that the kidney is healthy enough to be donated and that it’s matched to the correct donor so the organ doesn’t get rejected.

Every ten minutes, someone is placed on a waiting list for an organ transplant, and every year the number of patients on this waiting listing continues to grow exponentially while the number of available organ transplants does not grow so quickly (organdonor.gov). This organ shortage represents a huge issue in the medical community, and numerous issues arise from the ethical principles involved with organ donation. The ethical dilemma in the case of Ruth Sparrow deals with whether it is ethical or unethical to allow people to sell their organs. This issue creates another dilemma about whether it is ethical or not to buy these organs. Each issue will be addressed separately as two different problems with two distinct answers.

Decease donors in most cases write a will prior to their deaths permitting their own organs to be given to someone else. Apparently, this is considered to be the most appropriate because it does not cause any harm, especially physical harm to the donor. Furthermore, it is the will of the deceased that the living should respect and not go against. However, this kind of donation is against cultural and religious beliefs of some individuals who feel that dead people deserve their last respect. Other issues arise when a person is declared dead when they really aren’t because sometimes mistakes can be done in authentication.

As of August 2017, 116,000 men, women, and children were on the national transplant waiting list. Within 2016, 33,611 transplants were performed, these statistics show the large percentage of how unlikely it is for thousands of people to not receive a transplant. Expanding further into the waitlist, about every 10 minutes another person is added to the waiting list and 20 people die each day waiting (Organ Donor, n.d.). From examining these statistics, it appears as the ratio of those receiving and waiting is very uneven. Due to

If this part was not included people probably wouldn’t understand why they should donate organs, or why it so important. Which is what Dowd is trying to explain in these to paragraphs. This part of the essay helps you understand that everyone has fears, of donating their organs. “I’m one of the scaredy-cats who never checked the organ donation box or filled out the organ and tissue donor card.”. I think that shows that Dowdy is relatable.

Each day, about eighty Americans receive a lifesaving organ transplant. We need a way to save these lives, and we have one: Organ donation. When you become an organ donor, you can saves the lives up to eight people. Controversy surrounds this option for many reasons, and some do not find this option to be ethical but most believe it is what God’s calls us to do. The Catholic sees it as love and charity.

In 2017, 510 people deceased donors donated their organs, saving over 1,400 people, and giving them the gift of organ donation. In 2017. ‘The most important thing that helps a family's decision is their knowing the donation decision of their loved one' (Donate Life, 2017) only 60% of Australians discuss their wishes for organ donation with their family, meaning the other 40% of Australian families are more than likely to decline organ donation, this is one of the biggest barriers for Australian organ donation. Also, during a conducted survey between the year 12 health class and other students, within figure 1, it can be shown that only 13.4% of people were registered to become an organ donor in Australia, compared to Australia's 76% (Transplant Australia, 2016). Furthermore, 40% of Australians don’t know if their religion supports organ and tissue donation, and 20% of families that declined donation in 2014 did so out of religious or cultural concerns, this amount is huge, if people who were educated in whether or not their religion accepts organ donation, a whole 20% of families would allow their loved one to proceed with organ and tissue transplantation, this barrier is one of the largest ones to date.

While the number of donors has grown, it has not kept pace with the need. As the graph below indicates, the gap is large and widens with each passing year. This imbalance results in an average of 100 waiting list deaths per week. Organ donation took its first tottering steps in the late 1950s. Successful transplantation of tissues and cells, such as skin and blood, began a little bit earlier than that (Tilney 2003).

There is something in this idea that can be applied to morality. Some actions, like journeys, have value regardless of the outcomes they produce. Williams brings this point about to show how the utilitarian’s focus on consequences might not be the best way to assign value to actions, since it has no way of accounting for the intrinsic values actions may have. Here I have to agree with Williams. The manner in which consequentialist judge actions does not seem to allow any room for considering a person’s intent behind choosing to commit that act.

Meaning simply that just because of an event, good or bad, in your life occurs you can’t just change who you are. Sure you can try I did, but my worldview kept bringing me back. You can try to change who you are but you can't change your past experiences and emotions. So therefore my worldview changes and I rightfully think it should. My worldview is based off of strong morals and beliefs, but also an understanding of difference.

There has to be some type of insurance that is affordable for every person that provides them with at least the minimum benefits. Some health benefits are better than none at all. This will give people a higher expectancy of living a longer life, as oppose to somebody who has no medical coverage. Our lack of universal coverage has consequences. According to government and private studies, about 22,000 of our fellow Americans die each year of treatable diseases because they lack insurance and can’t afford a doctor.