Introduction
The sale of human organs otherwise referred as organ trade is a phenomenon that has grown in the recent years especially with the technology explosion in the medical world. Organ trade has developed over time due to the discovery of the ability to transfer one person’s organ to another person whose organ has failed and who is compatible with the other person’s organ. The giver of the organ in this case is usually referred as the donor while the person receiving it is referred as the recipient. Initially, organ donation and subsequent transplant happened between two related people who were matching. Nevertheless, it spread to other people who matched the recipients and were willing to offer some of their organs. Organs usually transplanted include kidneys, liver, pancreases, heart, and lung, which lie in the category of the most common organs up for transplant. The paper seeks to present the whole issue of organ trade besides highlighting reasons as to why it should or not be allowed.
Organ Trade
The discovery of organ transplant as a life saving procedure coupled with its subsequent spread has led to a rise in demand for organs for people who are critically ill due to organ failure and in dire need of one. The rise in demand for organs for transplant and the scarcity of organs to transplant have led to the rise of the organ trade with healthy persons putting up their organs for sale due to the returns they bring about. There are two sources for organs for transplanting or for sale in general. The first source comes from deceased persons who happen to die. Their organs are deemed fit for transplanting to the needy cases while the second source comes from live donors who give up their organs for sale either voluntarily or involuntarily. According to the world health organisation, 107,000 organ transplants either legal or illegal happened in the year 2010.
This is just but an estimated figure of the trade because the trade and transplant is done in secrecy most of the time as a way of beating the law. The cost of organs varies from organ to organ and from place to place with the most demand coming from the rich in the society coming from mostly Europe and America. The suppliers of these organs come from the poor countries that are mostly in Asia, Eastern Europe, South America, as well as Africa. According to Shimazono, the cost of an organ ranges from $14000 to $160000 with kidneys being the most available in the market (955). Research indicates that most transplants in organs have happened from illegally acquired organs and mostly in secrecy.
Legal Position of Organ Trade
The debate of whether to legalise organ trade is a very tricky one due to the facts that keep on coming up during the debate. On one hand, people advocating for the legalisation of the trade have very strong points for their arguments to legitimise the trade. On the other hand, the groups opposed to it also have very strong points for the same. The origin of organ trade lies in the organ transplant’s success. Organ transplant has been necessitated by the need to save lives of people suffering from organ failure. For instance, persons with kidney failure are always legible for kidney transplant. This has been made possible because individuals have pairs of kidneys and can still rely on one kidney to run their bodies. This makes it possible for a person with two functioning kidneys to donate one and remain with one while remaining healthy.
The only problem in this case is the commercialisation of the whole process due to the high demand for organs and low supply for the same. This high demand has led to the breaching of medical ethics by turning the whole process commercial thus making it illegal. In the United States of America, the National Organ and Transplant Act of 1984 prohibits the sale of organs by stating that the organs should not be sold. Rather, they should be sacrificially given out. This kind of legislation has led to scarcity of organs for transplant. Pakistan passed the Transplantation of human Organs and Human Tissue Organs Ordinance of 2007, which effectively put controls on the trade. Raza notes, “Pakistan has the unenviable reputation for being one of the world’s leading ‘transplant tourism’ destinations largely from its impoverished population to rich international patients” (86). Such laws have been largely put in place as a way of safeguarding organ transplant from unethical commercial exploitation in a bid to keep it in its original realms of a medical practice meant to save lives.
Why Organ Trade Should Not Be Banned
It Is a Life Saving Process
Organ trade should be legitimised because it qualifies to be a life saving process that has saved many lives. The natural laws of survival lean towards preservation of human life at all costs. This case reveals why medical researchers are always coming up with new ways of providing health services that will elongate a human life. From a liberal point of view, the choice to sell and buy an organ should be an individual choice to make without attaching too many conditions to it. So many people out there are willing to sell their organs without being coerced for personal reasons as they feel that it is within their rights to do so. As long as a person is not going to die by donating an organ or selling the same, there should be no panic at all because the difference between donating and buying remains the same because the person has had his or her organ removed anyway.
Proponents of banning organ trade have attached an ethical dimension to the whole debate by arguing that it is unethical to sell ones organ for commercial purposes (Hughes 33). Without attaching the ethical dimension, organ trade becomes fully legitimate. Organ donations could have happened without attracting commercial interest if persons from the same family could easily donate to each other. However, it became tricky. In as much as family members volunteered to donate their organs to one of their own, the organs had to match thus throwing the whole thing off balance and forcing them to get the organs from external sources. Most external sources are limited in the sense that one has to find someone who is willing to give up some of his or her organs to another person if they are matching.
It Is Commercially Viable
Organ trade should be made legitimate because it is a commercially viable venture that can be used by the poor in the society to come out of the poverty hole. In most countries especially Asia, South America, and Eastern Europe, organ trade has been fuelled so much because of the high poverty levels that have afflicted the society. Thus, the need to alleviate poverty has forced people in these countries to explore it as one way of making money. People make money to improve their living standards. They cannot therefore make money die when they know very well that whatever they are doing will lead to their death. Therefore, when people put up their organs for sale, they are assured that they will remain safe and alive even after losing some of their organs.
In impoverished nations especially in Asia where there is a ready market as well as facilitation of the same, people have been able to sell their organs for an amount of money they would have never earned in their lives thus enabling them improve their lives and that of their families. From a critical point of view, it does not make sense for one to die of hunger when he or she can afford to sell part of his or her organs because after all dying will lead to the disposition of the whole body with all the organs inside. The argument for legalisation of organ sale should be viewed in tandem with the legalisation of adoption especially by agencies that make a lot of money out of it. Compared to adoption, organ sale should be much more appreciated if it is voluntary and in accordance with the laid down procedures. Weimer recommends, “There is a considerable room for improvement in the current prohibitive approach to commercialism and organ trafficking” (575). Commercialisation of organ transplant will simply bring sanity and order in the whole sector thus making it more affordable for buyers to locate donors as well as donors to locate buyers.
Dangers of Legalising Organ Trade
The trade in organs has led to the rise of other factors that have to be considered before the trade can be given legitimacy. So far, the challenges that have been observed for the short time that the practice has been in place are enormous and cannot be ignored at all. The sale of human organs has led to the rise of organ trafficking gangs, which have formed a big network around the world. These gangs have come in as intermediaries who facilitate the acquisition of the organs among the receivers of the organs or the clinics providing transplanting services. Though hard to come by, organ trade has led to most of these gangs resorting to crude ways of acquiring these organs due to the high returns they guarantee. The problem that comes up is the case of exploitation by traffickers who take advantage of the social plight of the donors to exploit them. In some instances, the donors are paid a paltry fraction of the total some of the money that has changed hands. For instance, a donor can be paid up to just $1000 for their organs, which might fetch up to $160000 when sold. The problems that led to the banning of organ trade have been highlighted as exploitation of vulnerable groups by the rich, the intermediaries who run the trade, breach of medical ethics by the people conducting the procedures, and over commercialisation of the process. This has forced most countries in the world to totally ban the trade in organs or place strict legislative measures to put sanity in the trade. The influx of criminal gangs in this trade has totally changed the way these organs are acquired or harvested. In the poor impoverished countries, donors are always tricked into entering into consent to allow their organs to be harvested. As Alexandra points, “The illicit trade of human organs remains a mystery to the general public. Lack of awareness also boosts vicious cycle” (2). Therefore, there are far too many dangers in legalising it.
Crime in Organ Trade
Legalising trade in human organs might just lead to an increased open demand for organs for transplant, which might further lead to many criminal activities. Just in the same way as adoption has been legalised thus leading to a fledgling industry for kidnapping children, the same will happen with organ trade. The problem is that the recipient of the organ will never be able to tell whether the organ was legally acquired or not. This case is attested to reports where people in some countries have been robbed of their organs at gunpoint without following due medical procedures. Their organs have been harvested and sold. So many cases have been reported in Eastern Europe and Brazil whereby live and healthy people have been murdered and their organs acquired for the sake of the organ trade market. Organ trade has been linked to global criminal economy besides being equated to such criminal activities like drug trafficking. As Francis observes, “Although human organ trafficking does not directly fuel civil war like conflict commodities, its persistence does fuel global criminal economy” (27).
Due to the lucrative nature of the business, it has attracted very sophisticated international gangs who have infiltrated it and are currently controlling it. As much as people around the world are ready to sell their organs, they cannot satisfy the market demand for organs, which is a case that is far much higher than the willing donors. For instance, in China, there were only 5000 transplants available against a demand of over 160,000 needy recipients, which is against a far wider number of undocumented needy recipients. With such statistics, there is a far much bigger danger of the criminal world further taking over the business.
Conclusion
In conclusion, based on the expositions made in the paper, trade in human organs is a phenomenon that can never end very soon. Just like the drug phenomenon, it will persist for as long as no substitute solution is found to cater for the needs of people needing organ transplant. Abolishing the trade in organs on the other hand is not a solution because the world is not uniformly informed on issues affecting society. The issue of organ trade can be sufficiently addressed in developed countries. At the same time, people in most third world countries are totally out of the picture on the same. This imbalance is what has led to transplant tourism that happens all the time to beat the law. Regulations should be put in place and more education about the topic spread among people in the third world who are the most vulnerable to organ trade.
Works Cited
Alexandra, Jared. “The increasing Rates of Organ Trafficking in the Context of Globalisation.” Journal of Contemporary Perspectives 1.1(2011): 1-19. Print.
Francis, Piennar. “Stateless Crimes Legitimacy and International Criminal Law: the Case of Organ Trafficking.” International Journal for Philosophy of Crime and Criminal Law and Punishment 11952.1(2010): 27. Print.
Hughes, Nancy. “Commodity Fetishism in Organ Trafficking.” Sage Journals 7(2001): 31-62. Print.
Raza, Murshid. “Pakisatn kidney Trade: An Overview of THOTO 2007 Ordinance.” The Journal of Pakistani Medical Association 62.1(2010): 85-89. Print.
Shimazono, Yosuke. “The State of the International Organ Trade: A Provisional Picture Base on Integration of Available Information.” Bulletin of the World Health Organisation 85.1(2007): 955-962. Print.
Weimer, William. “A criminological Perspective: why prohibition of organ trade is not Effective and How the Declaration of Istanbul can Move Forward.” American Journal of Transplantation 12.3(2012): 571-575. Print.