PEER REVIEW worksheet
The Cause and Effects of Regulating Organ Sales
The world is full of both healthy and unhealthy people. Some of these unhealthy people are waiting on a very slim chance to get better. In order to get better, some of these unlucky individuals require an organ transplant for survival. According to The United States Department of Health & Human Resources and Services Organization, only about thirty five percent of the people waiting on the transplant list get the transplant they so desperately need. (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2020). That means out of 120,00 individuals that have been placed on the national organ transplant list 65% or 78,000 people are still waiting and many of them will die. (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2020). Every 9 minutes someone is added to this list, increasing the need and demand for healthy organs for transplant and creating an even more serious dilemma for those already on the waiting list. (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2020) This overwhelming need for healthy organs is obviously creating desperation for the people affected by this. If these desperate people have the ability some turn to the black market to satisfy their bodies needs so that their lives will be saved. In 1984, The National Organ Transplant Act of 1984 outlawed the sale of human organs under Section 274e (2010). According to Section 274e of the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984 (2010), the sale of human organs is prohibited. This prohibition for the sale of organs has created the underground sale of organs through the black market which negatively affects the donor and recipient.
The black market is lucrative for the people facilitating the transaction between the donor and recipient at their expense. There are countless horror stories in which the middle man and surgeons in the black-market profit by exploiting a poor donor and a recipient with no where else to turn. The donors found are in financial dire circumstances and are willing to sacrifice their organ and proper medical care to fix their financial burden. One specific example is brought to our attention by Dan Bilefsky of the New York times in, “Black Market for Body Parts Spreads Among the Poor in Europe.” Pavle Mircob who is a husband and father of two lives in Serbia and was in financial trouble. He lost his job and had no way to provide for his family. Him and his wife Daniella both decided that the only way to put food on the table was for each of them to sell their kidneys on the black market. They were offered nearly 40,000 dollars for one of their kidneys which is not even close to a reasonable risk for such a small gain on a classified local sight (Bilefsky, 2012) .Another example is that of Sally Satel, who turned to a black market website looking for a kidney, but the donor backed out of the transaction (Satel, 2006). Luckily, Satel met a friend who donated a kidney to her. Having been in this desperate situation for receiving a kidney transplant, Satel vehemently supports a strongly enforced legislative approach to disband the unsavory practices the black market, such as the exploitation of impoverished people by unfair compensation and poor medical treatment for these donors.
This need for organs has created a vacuum in which traffickers are willing to fill and cash in by any means possible. The difference between an organ trafficker and a middle man who sets up the transaction is that the trafficker lures the unsuspecting person and harvests their organs involuntarily. After being brought to a secure location, the traffickers will drug the unsuspecting donor and take whatever organs they need from them which can result in death. If the victim wakes up, they are surprised to discover that they are missing an organ or organs and have to deal with the aftermath. However, most individuals are tricked into this raw deal but are not even compensated the way that they have been promised if compensated at all. “Recently in China, a missing 6-year-old boy was found alone in a field crying. Upon closer inspection, both eyes had been removed, presumably for the corneas” (Archer, 2013). These atrocious acts are a direct result of not having a regulated organ trade opening the door for ruthless criminals.
In conclusion, the prohibition of selling organs, has created a black market for organ trade, comprising of the impoverished, desperate individual’s voluntary selling their organs for unfair compensation and substandard compensation. Further, organ trafficking is on the rise, due to no compensation being given to unsuspecting people being lured under false pretenses stripped of one or more of their organs. Organ traffickers most often use coercion on poor people, providing false promises in order to harvest their organs without paying the entire, if any, compensation. This inability to get organs in a safe regulated way has created more problems than you can imagine. Therefore, a strongly regulated market for selling organs is the key to combatting all these issues caused by the shortage of organs.
References
Archer, D. (2013, November 13). Body snatchers: Organ harvesting for profit. Psychology Today. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reading-between-the headlines/201311/body-snatchers-organ-harvesting-profit
Bilefsky, D. (2012, June 28). Black market for body parts spreads among the poor in Europe. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/29/world/europe/black-market-for-body-parts-spreads-in-europe.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
National Organ Transplant Act of 1984, 42 U.S.C § 274e. (2010).
Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov
U.S. Department of Health & Human Resources and Services Organization (2020). “The Need Is Real : Data.” www.organdonor.gov/statisticstories/statistics.html.