ORGAN DONATIONS SHOULD BE MANDATORY BY GOVERNMENT

Organ donations should be mandatory by governments as in the United States as in the rest of the world. Just in the United States, according to National Geographic, “more than 80,000 people are waiting for a transplant,” and according to Matching Donors Organization, “In the United States, 19 people die each day waiting for an organ transplant—most of them waiting for kidneys.” Usually organ donations come from a person who has recently died, or from a living donor. However, there is a shortage of organs, and many people are dying waiting for an organ transplant. The solution for this problem would be that government creates a law that makes people donate at least one organ after they die. In my opinion, this law is necessary for two reasons: to help others to live and stop human organ trade.

The first reason to create one-organ mandatory donation after death is that helping others’ lives should be considered as social justice. Every single individual has the opportunity to save others’ lives just by donating an organ during lifetime or after his or her death. However, there are few people who want to help others. Probably people do not donate an organ during lifetime because they are afraid of jeopardizing their own lives and suffering physical pain. Fortunately, there is another way to donate an organ without being worried about these things, donate organs after death. This could be the best option for everybody. In order to do that, people should authorize it in live, and as soon as they die, their organs would be removed and transplanted into somebody else. According to Matching Donor Organization, Texans can sign up to be organ donors by signing the back of their driver’s license upon renewal. Although this option sounds simply and painless, people still are not donating. There are a lot of organizations to encourage people to donate, but these efforts are not enough. Then, people who are waiting for a transplant they have three options: one is waiting until somebody with a good heart donates it (the hardest one); second, dying without having found a donor, or third, buying it from somebody in a poor country. The shortage of organ donors, the politics of organ donation, the people’s suffering and desperation, extreme poverty and corruption are the perfect features for human organ trade and organ black market around the world be successful.

The second reason to create one-organ mandatory donation after death is to stop human organ trade and human organ black market. The fact that organ donations depend on the people willing makes the process to find a donor very difficult. Then people have to find another ways to get an organ such as buy it. In addition, many people from developed countries are traveling to poor countries such as China, India or Mexico among other places to get an organ and transplant it in clandestine clinics. The biggest problem when people buy illegally an organ is that they really do not know where it is coming from, how it was founded, and even, they do not know if is really healthy. The terrible true is that organs in the black market come from people who were killed to trade with their organs, or from people who is extremely poor and have to sell them for a little money. These organs are being sold especially to rich people who can pay for these expends. For example, MSN News Published on June 16, 2007, an articled called, “Guatemala mob kills suspected organ thieves.” This article talks about in Camotan, Guatemala, a woman killed a nine-year-old girl to extract and sell her organs. Another example can be seen in the article “The Corruptive Influence of the Dollar: The Shameful Trade in Mexican Baby Organs!” published by La Voz de Aztlan. According to them, "there are many children in the United States waiting for organs in order to survive. Therefore, dozens of Mexican midwives, nurses, doctors, lawyers, judges and even clerics, participate as accomplices in the theft of children from whom organs are extracted at clandestine clinics on the U.S.-Mexico border." These are two clear examples of how people are being killed to extract their organs. In addition, there are other examples related to corruption of governments and organ trade. For example, BBC news published on June 28, 2001, an article called “Global demand fuels human organ trade." It says that in China, “Chinese prisoners may be being killed to order, so that their organs can be sold to rich foreigners.” Another example can be seen in an article called “Organ Shortage Fuels Illicit Trade in Human Parts” published by National Geographic on January 16, 2004. It says that “Brazilian police reported that dozens of willing donors were flown from that nation's destitute neighborhoods to South Africa where transplant surgery was performed on patients. Recipients may have paid as much as U.S. $100,000 for their ill-gotten organs. Donors received a fraction of that amount.” India is another example of human organ trade. BBC News published on October 15, 2002, an articled called “Indians selling human organs.” It says that “one area of the Indian city of Madras has been nicknamed 'kidney district' because so many people have sold their kidney.” These people are jeopardizing their lives for a little money, and their organs are being sold to some rich people from developed countries for a large amount of money. Generally, the organs obtained by these ways have bad quality because of the non-hygienic procedures used. Also, inside the U.S. organs are being sold. According to the article called, “The Organ Black Market,” published by How Stuff Work. In the U.S., "a black market for human tissue exists. It usually involves bodies about to be cremated. A black market broker may enter into a financial arrangement with a criminally minded funeral home director and carve up the bodies before they're cremated. Falsified papers -- such as consent forms and death certificates -- are produced, and the tissue can then be sold to an American research facility." These examples show clearly how the lack of voluntary donors has developed a black market of human organs which is making a lot of money and jeopardizing donors’ and patients’ lives.

In conclusion, organ black market is an immoral, terrible way to traffic with human parts. This can be reduced or stopped if organs are more accessible. In the only way that they could be accessible is creating a law that makes people donate at least one organ after they die. With this law, government could save a lot of lives, finish people’s suffering, save money in medical treatment and also, stop the organ human trade.