Essay on Policy Proposal

There are many problems that are related to the sales, trade, and donation of human organs. Despite the strict measures that have been put in place to check the practice of sale, trade donation, and trafficking of human organs, most of the jurisdictions have not successfully curbed the human organ trafficking menace. The problems involving human organ donations and trade include; the societal immorality that people have been doing, such as killing children and adults for their organs for sales to the other people in need for profits. According to Koplin (2017), arguments against the sales of human organs are contradictory to human dignity, and the second argument is that the sales of the human organs violated the equity in human existence. There is always a thin line between organ sales being illegal and legal, especially in the case of trafficking, and prioritizing the rich recipients to the poor recipients because they have more money.

Problem Statement and Justification

The problems involved in human organs transplants, sales, donations, and even trafficking are in two ways a problem and a solution to a problem. In a nutshell, some people may willingly donate their organs to friends and family members who may need them due to some medical conditions they may be going through, which is considered acceptable, according to Toews et al., 2017. On the other hand, many unscrupulous people who need profits may kidnap and kill unwilling and innocent individuals for their organs which they sell for profits.

It is a problem in society to decide whether it is a good thing to have another person’s organ to save another person for the expense of another person’s life. This scenario has become an ethical dilemma which is difficult to have a clear verdict. In this case, it is important to see the problem as an ethical dilemma. Sales of human organs violate human equity, dignity, and rights. Sales of the organs can also save other people’s lives; for example, when a kidney is donated to a patient who needs a kidney, the patient can be saved (Toews et al., 2017). This situation brings the idea of selling organs at crossroads because people will always debate what is the right thing to do, especially for deceased donors who did not consent to donate their organs.

The problem of sales and trade on human organs has been identified as a problem rather than a solution. A proper reasonable resolution should be put in place to eradicate or ensure that human dignity, rights, and equity are upheld. It is important to question how the sale of human organs brings the dilemma of legality or illegality, whether the organs are given as gifts, donated, or for heroic actions of saving lives (Scheper-Hughes, 2020). First, looking at the equity aspect of the problem is that human organs are costly, and the sales depend on how much money a person can give to get a particular organ. People will also willingly sell their organs for money which brings inequality in societal life. The health care system is also considered to be subject to market forces. Drugs, medical procedures, and services are costly and not available to everyone. This will mean that a patient who needs a transplant and is not capable of affording such procedures and purchase of the organs for transplant will not be able to access better medication as compared to the other patients who might be wealthier to afford the medical procedures, and this brings in the aspect of inequality (Cherry, 2017).

Another aspect of this discussion is about human dignity. Human dignity is a contemporary ethical deliberation; there cannot be a genuine way to say that the sale of human organs is free consent. The decision that is made so that an organ is taken from one person and transplanted to another person even after all the prevailing circumstances are looked at critically without the decision of the donner of the organ demeans his human dignity. The concept of human dignity is that people should not be forced to die or lose their lives prematurely. When people are abducted, kidnapped, or even killed to gain their organs, their dignity is contravened.

Lastly, human beings are separate from other living things; humans possess virtues such as love, kindness, sacrifice, forgiveness, and many other virtues that separate a human from an animal. Human has their rights such as the right to make decisions and right to live. These human rights are often violated due to human organ trading, sales, and donations.

This set of problems need to be solved. It is also very difficult to solve this kind of problem because people require money and most people will do anything for money, and also those with money will need them for medical procedures. Then human beings need to understand the importance of staying human and protecting the interest and wellbeing of other human beings for a proper coexistence. Human organ sales and trade is a matter that has been on the spot for a long time. It is the role of the relevant health agencies to put necessary measures that can help put the necessary criteria that will enhance openness in the organ transplantation medical process. This is important because it will bring a fruitful result on transparency and avoiding reckless human organ businesses for profits that bring deaths to innocent children and adults (Cherry, M. J. 2017).

Human organs should not be traded for monetary gains. This is because there should be paramount respect for human life. Human beings need to live a life that protects the existence of the human species. Most of the people who fall, victims of organ removal from their bodies, are most vulnerable groups such as the female gender and the unsuspecting children or can easily be lowered into such traps. The other group is those suffering from immense poverty who can go as far as selling their body organs for monetary gains. The people who are also commonly involved in the trafficking of human organs include ambulance attendants, doctors, healthcare practitioners, and morgue attendants who can easily remove the organs of their clients for resale hence making profits (Scheper-Hughes, 2020).

There are the steps that can be followed so that the sales of human organs can be elevated, these include;

Reducing demand for the human organs

Reducing the demand for human organs will not attract people who view it as a business. The involvement of key players in the health sector, such as the doctors, ensures that organ procurements are not done through financial transactions, which can attract more people who need monetary gains. The tourism operations should also ensure that no organ transplant tourism attracts vulnerable or those who sell their body organs for monetary gains, especially the less privileged in the society.

The community and cultural leaders

The tribal, community, and cultural leaders must ensure that the traditional medical partitioning is not interpreted or done in a manner that manifests human organ interference. This intern helps in upholding the integrity of the human body. The local leadership also has the mechanism of knowing what happens around their jurisdiction; hence they are important tools in ensuring that such inhuman activities are not present in their jurisdictions. The community leaders are also very influential and can convince the people to avoid participating in the activities of selling and buying human organs. When such useful information is impac6ed on the community, the people will eventually be the keepers of themselves, and hence no such activities will be happening in the community.

Law enforcement officials

It is also incumbent upon the law enforcement officials to be the front runners in the identification of acquiring the necessary skills and knowledge that equips them to be able to investigate to know the victims of such circumstances and the perpetrators of the activities of organ removal. When the patrols and the police are in charge, most people will be scared of participating in the removal of human organs. If this is achieved, there will be very minimal cases of human organ sales, and the demand will also not be there because human organ products will never be available (Spitale, 2018). Hence, the government should ensure that the police are trained and provided with the necessary detective techniques that will be useful in combating such inhuman activities as killing and selling the body organs of fellow human beings.

Illegalizing the sale of human organs.

The sales of human organs should be completely illegalized. This is for the reason that it is the wealthy who will benefit, leaving the poor to sacrifice their health for money. In the scenario where people are selling their vital body organs for monetary gains, the value of being a human is lost, the dignity is lost, and there is no equality in being human. So it is very significant for the health governing body to consider illegalizing sales of human organs. This will also reduce the ingrained mentality on the sellers and the buyers of the body organs to involve themselves in the trading activities of the human body organs (Columb, 2020).

Development of better systems

The government should be very active in ensuring that there is a proper system on the donation of organs from deceased persons, also by the encouragement of the charitable donation of the living kidney to those in need and also preventing the needs of implantations on patients, and this can be done by the continuous efforts of treating the illness to the point of cure to avoid implantations that need other peoples’ organs. Last but not least, people should adopt better lifestyle patterns that will not encourage illnesses that later need implantation (Łuków, P. 2020).

In conclusion, even as policies are put in place to increase the number of organ donors and reduce the recipients on the waiting list, they are not enough because many Americans still lose their lives because they cannot get any transplant. A major problem with the unavailability of organs, especially among the poor, is their inability to buy organs through illegal sources. The rich always have an advantage because they can compensate the donors more money. The trade and sale of human organs bring the dilemma of whether it is legal to “purchase” a human organ or protect human rights and dignity. A policy to ensure that people get what they deserve without any unethical actions needs to be implemented to remove the dilemma and increase the number of organ donors.

References

Cherry, M. J. (2017, October). Organ vouchers and barter markets: Saving lives, reducing suffering, and trading in human organs. In The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy: A Forum for Bioethics and Philosophy of Medicine (Vol. 42, No. 5, pp. 503-517). Oxford University Press. https://academic.oup.com/jmp/article-abstract/42/5/503/4157660

Columb, S. (2020). Trading Life: Organ Trafficking, Illicit Networks, and Exploitation. Stanford University Press. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=6nfnDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT4&dq=problems+related+to+the+sales,+donations+and+trade+of+human+organs&ots=b7HBfdwRJk&sig=u-IWoYtY2ys_lBIyve-3_eGO300

Koplin, J. J. (2017, October). The body as a gift, commodity, or something in between: ethical implications of advanced kidney donation. In The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy: A Forum for Bioethics and Philosophy of Medicine (Vol. 42, No. 5, pp. 575-596). Oxford University Press. https://academic.oup.com/jmp/article-pdf/doi/10.1093/jmp/jhx017/19914434/jhx017.pdf

Łuków, P. (2020). Pure altruistic gift and the ethics of transplant medicine. Journal of bioethical inquiry, 17(1), 95-107. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11673-019-09951-z

Scheper-Hughes, N. (2020). The global traffic in human organs. In The Body (pp. 208-215). Routledge.

Spitale, G., 2018. The gift in donations. http://www.giovannispitale.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/gift-in-donations-070517-.pdf

Toews, M., Giancaspro, M., Richards, B., & Ferrari, P. (2017). Kidney Paired Donation and the “Valuable Consideration” Problem: The Experiences of Australia, Canada, and the United States. Transplantation, 101(9), 1996-2002. https://journals.lww.com/transplantjournal/Fulltext/2017/09000/Kidney_Paired_Donation_and_the__Valuable.16.aspx