Sale of Human Organs Should Be Legalized Persuasive Essay Example

📌Category: Health, Human Body, Social Issues
📌Words: 744
📌Pages: 3
📌Published: 10 April 2022

The busy sounds of a hospital flood the room as a young child, barely three, lies in his hospital bed. He is in desperate need of a new liver, the doctors tell him, however he may not survive. Half a million is the cost, and his mother, a single mom working two to three jobs a week, can not afford to pay that price. Donation isn’t an option; not a single person is willing to give up their bodies for free. Thankfully this is just an example of what could take place if tissue sales were to be legalized. The cost of an organ on top of numerous hospital bills would be enough to make even the richest suffer. Therefore, no one should have the ability to legally profit from or purchase organs.

Many people believe that by legalizing the sale of tissue, the amount of people on the donation wait list will decrease. As of March 2022, only around 40,000 out of around 100,000 people receive an organ in the United States. Out of the hundred thousand, seventeen die daily waiting for a chance to live (Organ Donation). How could someone think that it would be unjust to offer compensation for organs if the lives of just one of these people could be saved? However, the greed and the money-hungriness of humanity overcomes the virtue of organ sales. In today’s world, organs are donated, relieving the pressure off of giving up a part of one’s body. In a world where organ sales are legalized, many people could feel pressured to give their organs up for a check, increasing the market for human trafficking. This being said, ten percent of annual transplantations already stem from organ trafficking, (Efrat) and by legalizing the sale of organs, this rate will only continue to increase. 

In addition to this, the legalization of tissue ownership would terminate the strong bond between donors and recipients. The moral values would be deprived, therefore, the greediness would shine through like a light in the shadows. A previous donor stated that she and the man she gave her organ to were “like family” after the transplant was finished (Johnson). Legalizing the sale of organs would put a price on this relationship, making the relationship money-centered, and taking out the altruistic value (Chapman 2). Monetizing something that was once donated will lead people to donate for the wrong reasons, not because they feel a push to donate (Johnson). Allowing organ sales would just create more moral issues and put a crack in the once unbreakable bond between donor and recipient.  

Another issue that would stem from the legalization of tissue ownership would be the disadvantages that lower income citizens could face. Charging the poor for something that was once donated will put them at a great disadvantage, and could be extremely detrimental to their health since they can not afford to purchase this tissue (Dougherty). The lower income community would be targeted as an easy ploy to meet the needs of the market, becoming “walking organ-banks.” (Lawlor) A kidney alone averages for around half of a million, which is a price that someone working minimum wage or less could not meet. The price would spark a tough decision between life in debt or death. 

Adding to this risk, many people would also feel obliged to give up their organs for money. This would lead these individuals to over-donate, which would greatly burden their health. Legalizing organ sales would put donor’s at a threat to meet the needs of supply and demand, causing donors to oversell their bodies. (Dougherty) An organ is something that should be given because there is a strong push to do so, not for a quick way to make money. Even though organ donation is considered safe, that does not mean that donors aren’t risking their health (Shaw, Bell 2). If people are allowed to give their organs up for money, they may feel driven to give it up for money, instead of focusing on what is best for their own health.

Legalizing organ sales could put a crack in what organ donations mend. Organ sales break the bond between donors and recipients to the point where a bond that was once unbreakable is now the equivalent of a salesman and a buyer. Organ sales also break the pockets of the poor, making them choose between two things that should never be a choice, a life spent paying off debt, or a departure from life. Finally, organ sales break the health of donors, pressuring them to give up more and more until they practically have nothing left to give. A world where organs are monetized is a world that would be corrupt and morally unjust. For the greater good of the world, organs should not be up for sale. 

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