CONTEMPORARY MORAL ISSUES
Question 3: The sale of human organs may seem like a good way to increase the supply by providing incentive to reluctant donors. However, critics argue that paid donors would be mostly poor people, who do not make contractual agreements free from coercion and have fewer means for maintaining good health after surgery. What are the moral issues surrounding organ donation, and what would be the most ethical response to the need for organs?
Introduction
It has been noted that the illegal and unethical organ donation have tremendously increased across the whole world since 2008 when there was a financial crisis that destabilized the economy of all nations in the world. Worse to note is that people have come out especially from the developing nations i.e. in Africa and Asian continents who are willing and able to sell out their body parts for financial reasons. This act has contributed immensely to this heinous trade of organ trafficking(Soifer, 2009).In the report that was released by the World Health Organization in the year, 2010 indicates that barely 107,000 people across the whole world have donated parts of their body because of poverty reasons.However, the UN body was categorical in saying that out of the total donators. Some transacted the business in compliant with the health policies but quite a good number of them illegally and unethically sold out their organs to wealthy people who were in need of organ transplant. Kidney donations have been noted to dominate the unethical organ business given the fact that it occupies 2/3 of the transplanted organs (Decker, 2014).
Ethics on Organ Donation and Ethical Response to Organ Needs
The World Health Organization today has put more effort to control most organ transplants that are conducted in the licensed health facilities across the whole world given the fact that more than 10 percent of the transplants that are conducted are done behind the universal health policies and regulations and are therefore termed as illegal and unethical (Decker, 2014). The illegal and unethical business of organ transplant is conducted by some of the wealthiest merchants across the whole world because the business has been found to be very lucrative and involves huge amount of money transaction.
The most ethical response to the needs of organ should be based on willing buyer willing seller strategy. The organ donation should take place in a legal and regulated environment the parties involved should give their informed consent on the transaction. This will ensure that there is no depletion of prices and that the good health conditions of the two parties will not be compromised.
The crisis and fluctuation of economy in the European nation is one of the major contributors of organ donation. Some of the leaders have condemned the illegal human body trade with the strongest terms possible while others have thanked the economic crisis, which has brought about growth in a new industry of organ trade (Cohen, 2012). This is the paradox that has made the illegality of this trade not to be discussed exhaustively and proper policies developed to ensure that the trade is properly controlled and managed.
Organ donation is a multifaceted issue that needs to be addressed in a multifaceted way taking into account the following; the mutual vulnerability of the criminal dealers, the chronic and abject poverty that prevails in most countries especially the 3rd world continents like Africa and Asia. The other factors that should be considered include the status and ego of the rich patients who are able to do anything possible under their power and wisdom to survive and lastly the weak policies that have encouraged the illegal and unethical organ donation expansion to the global level (Rizvi, 2012).
The major problem that promotes unethical organ donation is exploitation. The rich people in the society who have been diagnosed with organ failure have always shown their ability to buy the organs and afford the huge medical care cost that is involved in the whole medical process without putting into consideration the health of the donor after surgery. On the other hand, the donors have proved to be extremely poor and the only way that they can escape out of their poor conditions is to sell out their organs at a lower cost to the rich so that they can have some money to keep them going. The poor has always been denied the health care at the expense of the rich (Rizvi, 2012).
The policies should be put in place to ensure that irrespective of one’s wealth status, organ donation should not be carried out before an assessment of the health conditions of both parties are done. This will guarantee good health of both the donor and the recipient after the surgery. It has been noted that most donations have been characterized by deaths and infections of other medical conditions given the fact that the ethical values that should regulate organ donation have been overlooked because of the economic status of individuals.
Because of the disparity that exists, the rich as well as the middle class in Canada and the whole of Europe can afford to pay US$ 100,000-US$ 200,000 for an illegally transplanted organ plus other expenses that include transportation, communication and even operation done in well-equipped health care facility. It is sad to note that the poor in the society can wish to hear nothing rather than waiting for the rich, who are in need of the matching organ to knock at their doors, pay them and receive the organ in return without minding about their health conditions, which are bound to deteriorate further after the donation (Soifer, 2009).
The governments should therefore consider building strong economies so that the high level of poverty in most countries should be out-dated. The trade on human body is illegal and a criminal activity in mostnations and any trafficker who pleads guilty in a court of law is liable to not less than 10 years imprisonment. However, the governments of the day have never shown any concern of dealing with the barbaric trade, a factor that is promoting illegal and unethical organ trafficking and donations in most nations of the world. Most governments have issued a statement that poverty is not a factor enough to justify the illegal act of people coming out to illegally sell out their organs (Narveson, 2002). This shows a lot of backwardness because that alone encourages the rich to persuade the poor and give them small minor for life.
There is a wide range of forms of this illegal business in the international organ trade. One of such forms is called transplant tourism. This is conducted to people who intentionally travel across borders with an intention of undergoing organ transplantation. This form of organ trafficking contravenes the health policies and regulations and ethical values that guides and guards the conduct, the environment and the patients from any unnecessary medical harm that can be induced into them by the second party who are medical professionals and themselves through making uninformed decision of donating their organs for money. The internet and social media has been widely used to attract donors from foreign nations. The advertisement that has been propagated using social media on willing donors has been used as a tool to attract the poor in the society who are desperate for money and are willing to do anything whether beneficial or detrimental to their lives to get money (Aronowitz, 2009).
More often, the organ traffickers have lured young people who have not attained the age of responsibility and can therefore not make informed decisions so that they can accept to donate part of their body and receive small money in return. This is a felony that is equatal to defilement because young people have no proper understanding on their health issues and therefore luring them to donate their organs is a breach of law and a criminal activity that should be dealt with just like any other criminal activity (Decker, 2014).
The medics and the paramedics have also played a big role in promoting the illegal organ trafficking and donations more so in the European nations. In a case of Taiwan China, out of 118 people (clients) who donated their organs to wealthy patients, 68 of them told the Department of Health in an interview that they were persuaded by the medical officers and other medical staffs to do so. This made the Health Department of China to move with speed to come up with a policy that is aimed at preventing and controlling the medical and paramedical staffs from getting involved in organ trafficking and donations in one way or the other. It has also been noted that many ambassadors have promoted a cross the boundary organ donations especially in Philippines and Pakistan nations contravening their roles and responsibilities as provided by the law of their home nations as well as the foreign nations where they serve the interest of their home countries (Decker, 2014).
Some nations have been spotted to be importing organs from other nations aggravating the challenge of superiority complex to the health issue. The major organ importers as reported by the Organs Watch Organization, which is affiliated to California University in America, include Canada, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Israel, Japan and Oman nations. It has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt that most countries register a large number of patients who goes abroad for kidney transplants than those who receive the operation on the same locally(Soifer, 2009). This is not based on the fact that there are more experienced medical surgeons that are competent enough to conduct the medical operations but is based on one reason that organ donation is more prevalent in nations which have weak economy and are therefore considered as poor (Decker, 2014).
There have been a lot of consequences of organ trafficking to both the donors, the traffickers and to patients who are in need of effective organs. Some operations on the body of the two parties; the giver and the receiver of the organs have not been successful hence resulting into induced and untimely death. It is also important to note that fraud, abuse, forced payments to kidney donors have also been very prevalent in European countries, and therefore global Human Rights Watch Dog needs to come out strongly in order to address the legal issues surrounding the unlawful international organ trade (Cohen, 2012).
Conclusion
It is of much significance to note that paid kidney donation is directly linked to discrimination, regret and depression. Many donors normally register poor health after the operation, a factor that has often resulted into psychological distress and sudden death. The major question that has been raised pertaining to organ trafficking is where the law is and the role that the law should play in the midst of such a criminal and illegal trade which results into more poverty and death. It is therefore a fact that paid donations of organs should be shunned down because it promotes miseries and a state of lawlessness especially in the field of health care and health services delivery.Proper regulations and policies should be put in place to ensure proper practice of ethics and principles of morality whenever there is a need for organ donation.
References
Aronowitz, A. (2009). Human trafficking, human misery the global trade in human beings. Westport, Conn: Praeger.
Cohen, L. (2012). “The Other Kidney: Biopolitics beyond Recognition.” In Commodifying Bodies, ed. Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Loic Wacquant, London: Sage, pp. 9-30.
Decker, O. (2014).Commodified bodies’ organ transplantation and the organ trade. New York: Routledge.
Narveson, J. (2002). Moral Matters: Morality and Utility (2nd Ed.). Broadview Press.
Rizvi, A. (2012). Pakistan: Legislative framework on transplantation. Second global consultation in human transplantation. Geneva: WHO; pp. 28–30.
Soifer, E. (2009). Ethical Issues: Perspectives for Canadians (3rd Ed.). Broadview Press.
