Recently, in a post on prostitution, I challenged readers to name another activity that would otherwise be legal but is made illegal simply by virtue of money being exchanged in the process. Although I couldn't think of anything, my old friend from high school, Kim, pointed out, quite correctly, that it is perfectly legal to donate your organs but illegal to sell them.
Here is my question. Is a legal prohibition against selling your organs a good idea or a bad one?
Right now, there are more than 105,000 people in the US waiting for organ donations. This waiting list increases by approximately 300 people each month. There are between 70 and 80 organ transplants performed each month. 17-18 people per day die due to not having organs available for transplantation.
What if the OPTN Organ Procurement and Transplant Network), which is the agency that currently oversees organ donation and transplants, paid donors a predetermined price for their organs? With some organs, like the liver and kidney, this could be done while the person is alive and well and the donor could use the money from these as he or she sees fit. In the case of a deceased donor, the money that is generated by selling any viable tissues could go into the decedent's estate and could be used to settle any outstanding debts, with the remainder going to his or her heirs. These organs would then go to a donor based upon the same criteria that are now used, which are; tissue match, blood type, length of time on waiting list, immune status, distance between the potential recipient and the donor, and the degree of medical urgency (for heart, liver, lung and intestines).
The reason that I say that a “predetermined price” should be paid for organs is to avoid a situation in which a person would agree to sell organs to the highest bidder. Selling organs eBay-style would create an exploitative scenario in which wealthy people would have access to transplantable organs while those of lesser means would not. However, a well-regulated and equitable system of payment and organ distribution might help to narrow the gap between those who need organs and those who have them but might not otherwise be inclined to donate them. Knowing that when you die your organs may be donated to a person in need is reason enough for many people to fill out the donor card at the DMV (or BMV in Indiana...always have to be different don't you?). For some though, this idea is too abstract to move them to become a prospective donor. Maybe if they knew that, in addition to the abstract idea that donating an organ would help someone that they don't know live a longer and healthier life, knowing that their spouse or children might benefit from their donation would make them more inclined to donate.
Either way, I hope that you have made the decision to donate your organs in the event of your death. Let's hear your thoughts and ideas.
I have scrubbed (passed instruments) on an organ harvest and it was one of the most horrible experiences I can remeber.
ReplyDeleteThe IOPO team was callous, dehumanizing, and disrespectful of the donor. It really made me rethink donation-I know the guy was dead, but the attitude was insulting. At one point the first assistant asked the surgeon "Do we need this?" as he tossed the spleen up in the air and caught it like a set of keys or something. The surgeon said "No" and the First Assistant tossed it into the now empty chest cavity of the patient like a piece of garbage.
I realize that as an atheist your views would probably lean towards the "well, it is just meat" way of thinking, but I couldn't help think that if that were my body, and I were in the corner of the room wathching, I would be..I don't even know what the word is.
I was a donor before that experience, but not anymore
Scott
Scott,
ReplyDeleteLet me start by saying that I am in awe of you and your fellow nurses. There is no way that I could ever do what you do. Between having to deal with bio-hazards, extreme stress, families and patients that are in nerve-wracking and/or terrifying situations, and the physical and mental exhaustion that must come with it all, I would cease to function. What you do is admirable and the rest of us would be screwed without you. Because of that, you have a unique insight into this issue. I just hope that you won't give up on the idea of potentially helping other because of your experiences.
As far as your contention that I lean towards the “it is just meat” way of thinking. You are right, when I think of myself. Once I am dead, I hope that all my organs can help someone else live. After that, I don't care if they give my body to a bunch of necrophiliacs who pass it on to a bunch of cannibals after they get tired of it. Having said that, I would never condone treating someone else's body that way. The way that we treat our dead and the respect that we extend toward them is important.
The way that we treat dead people lets their friends and family know that their loved one's life was important and and that their death is deserving of a sense of solemnity and gravity. This lets us, the living, better appreciate the people around us and take stock of their value as people. Treating death as an occasion for reflection and remembrance unites us all in the realization of our finite natures. To diminish the importance of a single person's death is to diminish the humanity of all of us.
When our aunt Irene died, there was some douchebaggy hilljack cousin of ours (I don't know who he was) at her funeral wearing a faded, old, NASCAR t-shirt. It took all my self-control not to take that fuck stick out to the parking lot and give him a painful little etiquette lesson. For a person to diminish the importance of her death by dressing like you are going to a pig pickin' after your sister's shotgun wedding is inexcusable. But his presence at the funeral did not make me leave.
I think your doctor situation may be similar. Just because you ran into a group of doctors that are the emotional equivalent of our tacky, trailer park cousin, it doesn't mean that all transplant doctors act the same way. Most probably do not. Even if they do, I hope that you will put the knowledge that you could save someone's life by donating organs ahead of your very understandable disdain for these doctors in the same way that I put my desire to show respect at a funeral over my overwhelming desire to beat the crap out of our surplus chromosome cousin.
Based on what you have seen as a medical professional, do you think that financially incentivizing potential donors would be effective?
Yeah... they'll pay for plasma but you have to donate whole blood? never got that one either... and how about this... they're using pig skin in skin grafts. insurance companies will pay for a morbidly obese person to get gastric bypass but will not pay for the plastic surgery to remove the extra skin left sagging and hanging after the drastic weight loss. what if the patients were paid per square inch for their skin and it could be used instead of swineskin? could go for a new wardrobe! And i think they made it illegal to prevent a black market for organ sales...OH WAIT!! just another example... but i digress. >8)
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