Under the Mesquite is a story about a fourteen year old girl named Lupita from Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico. Lupita is the oldest child of eight and discovers that her mother has been diagnosed with cancer. Lupita is faced with leaving Mexico and coming to the United states to move to Eagle Pass, Texas. Lupita must face cultural adjustments and acclimate to a new home. Lupita has more responsibilities than a typical fourteen year old teenager of dealing with her mother’s illness, school, being a caregiver to her younger siblings, and conflict with friends and family. As Lupita struggles to keep the family afloat, she escapes the chaos of home by writing in the shade of a mesquite tree. Overwhelmed by change and loss, she takes refuge in the healing power of words.
These events have raised many ethical, moral and societal issues regarding supply, the methods of organ allocation, the use of living donors as volunteers including minors.² Due to the high costs of organ transplants, most patients use a combination of sources. Some patients can finance the transplant procedure through their primary insurance coverage and use savings and other private funds to pay for other expenses. Many patients work with community fundraising groups to complete their transplant financial strategy.² The costs of an organ transplant will vary for each patient, based on insurance coverage, the type of transplant and the location of the transplant center. Patients will also have a lifetime of medical expenses for follow-up care and
Imagine your child needs a heart transplant. If she gets it in time, she’ll live a long, healthy life. Without it, your child has, at most, one year to live. The article “Why Legalizing Organ Sales Would Help Save Lives, End Violence” published in The Atlantic on November 11, 2011, written by Anthony Gregory, claims that organ sales should be legalized because many people die on the transplant list before they can get an organ. Gregory gives an insight on some of the benefits of organ transplants and how in some countries, it is legal for people to sell their organs. The text is directed toward medical personnel because it causes them to question, “what if”, organ sales legalized or what would they gain from this legalization? His article is also directed towards people in need of an organ, and organ donors. Gregory is successful when he uses logical, emotional and ethical tactics to persuade his audience on why organ sales would be beneficial.
Thesis statement: The problem of organ shortage is a very serious now. More and more people are waiting for organs to continue their lives. We have the responsibilities to understand the situation and give a hand to solve the problem.
A chronic shortage of organs for transplantation has and continues to be one of the most controversial pressing health issues in many developed countries.During the previous decades, society’s behavior with regard to organ donation remains reluctant. A survey showed that although people plainly accept to offer their organs for transplantation, when a person dies, his or her relatives often refuse donation. To be able
Medicine is a practice based on moral standards applied to clinical values and judgments, also known as medical ethics. Ethical values consists of beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy and justice. However, these ethical principles are affected when distributive justice and rationing of health care resources are implemented “…in a world in which need is boundless but resources are not…” (Scheunemann & White, 2011, p. 1630).
Organ donation is currently the only successful way of saving the lives of patients with organ failure and other diseases that require a new organ altogether. According to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services there is currently 122,566 patients both actively and passively on the transplant list. This number will continue to increase, in fact, every ten minutes another person is added to the list. Unfortunately, twenty-two of these people die while waiting for an organ on a daily basis. 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.
This essay discusses the unfortunate death of a Mexican teenager in 2003 by the name of Jesica Santillan. Jesica Santillan was a 17-year-old who mistakenly died after she received incompatible organs in the course of a transplant surgery at the Duke University Hospital (Burns, Bradley, Langan & Weiner, 2011). Many questioned how one of the nation’s top medical centers could make such a fatal mistake as given a donor a mismatched blood type of organs. Jesica parents smuggled her in from Mexico hoping to find a cure for a heart and lung disorder that otherwise was not able to be treated in her country.
In the article, "Organ Sales Will Save Lives," by Joanne MacKay, is an informative essay that appeals to a readers emotions by raising awareness that there are thousands of people in the world that are in need of life-saving organs, specifically kidneys. MacKay does a fantastic job capturing the readers’ attention by describing the grueling dialysis treatments patients suffer from End Stage Renal Disease and the lengthy wait for a cadaver kidney donation. Unhappy with these options, many patients opt for a third choice which leads them into the pit which is known as the black market. MacKay’s description of the black market has the reader visualizing a run down slum with the surgery being done in a small filthy back room. The reason a patient
Despite the increasing number of donor designations in the past few years, a shortage still exists in donors. There are nearly 100,000 people waiting patiently on organ transplant waiting lists, but sadly, on an average day, less than 80 people receive donor organs and approximately 19 die waiting for transplants. Even with
On June 17, 1950, at Little Company of Mary Hospital, the very first semi-successful organ transplant was preformed (“First Successful Organ Transplant”). Ruth Tucker, who dealt with polycystic kidneys, was the recipient of this organ transplant (“First Successful Organ Transplant”). The surgery lacked standard anti-infection drugs and tissue typing but was still somewhat of a success for the brave doctors and patient (“First Successful Organ Transplant”). Shortly after the surgery, an article in Newsweek titled “Borrowed from the Dead” came out
Mrs. Brown, a patient with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) should have the option to end her life prematurely or to stay alive and suffer tremendously from a disease that is bound to kill her. Based on the readings and lecture in class, it has become apparent to me that choosing to die by withdrawing medication and choosing to die by taking medication follow very similar reasoning. On the paper Story of Teresa & Terrence - The Established Medical/Legal View, a parallel description of the reasoning that is followed for each case is shown, making clear the logical differences of each patient. In my opinion, the differences in the two cases of Teresa and Terrence are trivial at best. Both patients are choosing to die and taking deliberate measures to do so by changing the routine(s) of their treatment. If the means to die by stopping medication are permissible, the means to die by taking medication ought to be permissible.
The effects and outcomes from those in need of a transplant are quite impressive. 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
How do you feel when you have to wait for something you really, really want? What if it was something you couldn’t live without? I will talk about organ donation and hope that you will take my veiws on organ donation on board and give someone the most amazing gift after you have passed away, the gift of life. At this moment in the US there are 84 000 U.S patients waiting for an organ transplant. The number of people on the waiting list is increasing every day. You probably think that 84,000 aren’t that many people, compared to the U.S. population which is close to 300 million, but what if it’s your friends and family on the organ transplatwaiting list? There might be somebody you know on the waitning list for organ transplatation.