ankitgokani
Ankit Gokani
Shortage of Human Organs
There is currently a widespread shortage of human organs available for transplantation. In the United States alone, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, eighteen people on the transplant waiting list die each day as a result of this shortage. And this is only the tip of the iceberg of human suffering that this shortage of organs causes. For every person who dies while waiting for a transplant, many more have to continue to suffer painful and debilitating treatments while they endure their macabre wait for someone else to die and have their transplantable organs harvested. This terrible situation has not gone unnoticed. There have been many suggestions as to how this shortage of organs could be alleviated, ranging from encouraging donation to conscripting person’s transplantable organs after their deaths. But one way to alleviate this shortage has received almost universal condemnation: legalize markets in human transplant organs, in which a vendor sells his organs while he is still alive. It is clear why such a market would be widely condemned. After all, it conjures up the ghastly specter of the poor being forced by their economic desperation to sell their organs to the rich. Worse yet, we might worry that allowing such a market might lead the desperate poor to be driven to sell not just their non-vital organs, such as a single kidney, but those needed for their very existence, such as their hearts.
This condemnation of markets in human organs typically coalesces into two major objections: that allowing such markets would lead people to commit suicide for pay, and that such markets would enable the economic plight of the poor to subject them to coercion. Yet despite the popularity of these objections neither of them can withstand scrutiny. Before showing why this is so, it would be sensible first to outline why allowing markets in human transplant organs might be a good idea. After all, if there is no reason to allow such markets in the first place, there would be no reason to spend time showing this................
There is currently a widespread shortage of human organs available for transplantation. In the United States alone, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, eighteen people on the transplant waiting list die each day as a result of this shortage. And this is only the tip of the iceberg of human suffering that this shortage of organs causes. For every person who dies while waiting for a transplant, many more have to continue to suffer painful and debilitating treatments while they endure their macabre wait for someone else to die and have their transplantable organs harvested. This terrible situation has not gone unnoticed. There have been many suggestions as to how this shortage of organs could be alleviated, ranging from encouraging donation to conscripting person’s transplantable organs after their deaths. But one way to alleviate this shortage has received almost universal condemnation: legalize markets in human transplant organs, in which a vendor sells his organs while he is still alive. It is clear why such a market would be widely condemned. After all, it conjures up the ghastly specter of the poor being forced by their economic desperation to sell their organs to the rich. Worse yet, we might worry that allowing such a market might lead the desperate poor to be driven to sell not just their non-vital organs, such as a single kidney, but those needed for their very existence, such as their hearts.
This condemnation of markets in human organs typically coalesces into two major objections: that allowing such markets would lead people to commit suicide for pay, and that such markets would enable the economic plight of the poor to subject them to coercion. Yet despite the popularity of these objections neither of them can withstand scrutiny. Before showing why this is so, it would be sensible first to outline why allowing markets in human transplant organs might be a good idea. After all, if there is no reason to allow such markets in the first place, there would be no reason to spend time showing this................