Organ donation shortage
When receiving a driver’s license in the United States, there is a section on the back in which it asks if the licensed driver would like to become an organ donor. Most people overlook this option. Nothing is really pushed forth for people wanting to become organ donors. Today in the U.S, thousands of people need organ transplants. Unfortunately, there is a growing shortage of donated organs. Many people die every year because there are not enough organs ready for transplant. Resulting, there is an extremely long waiting list of people hoping that they will be the next ones to get called to receive an organ. For a lot of those people, they die waiting on that list. If more people would …show more content…
Others suggest that people can give their organs in exchange for tax breaks, guaranteed health insurance, college scholarships for their children, or deposits in their retirement account. These are all possible options of financial gain for a donor (Zolor, 1999).
The first reason that compensating organ donors would be beneficial is that it could prevent the loss of monetary value to the donor. Organ donation requires a surgical procedure. There are rare but potential risks when giving an organ. When something goes wrong, there are more expenses to be covered, such as additional surgery, extra hospital stays, or even lifelong treatment (Tabarrok, 2010). If something was to go wrong, if donors were paid to give their organs to those in need, more of these expenses would be covered.
Another reason why it is beneficial to pay organ donors is that other forms of bodily fluids are being sold for monetary value. In different states of the U.S, you can purchase/sell hair, blood, semen, and fertile eggs legally (Becker, 2009). Although these procedures don’t unusually require surgery, it is still the same concept of donating an organ. People are receiving the gift of another human’s body, and the donor is being compensated for it. There is no huge shortage in any of these areas, and less people are not dying from a need of blood, because there is no restriction on the compensation for giving blood. In today’s society a person can be