Pros and Cons of a New Opt-out System of Organ Donation Essay
Organ donation is a process when one organ is surgically removed from one person into another. Organ transplants can be needed for many reasons such as the recipient’s organ has failed or been damaged due to an illness or an injury. In the news today we hear about a system known as the “opt out”. This means every living person will become a donor unless it is explicitly recorded that they have opted out for some valid reason. Studies have attempted to show that the new opt-out system is “unlikely” to increase the saving of lives as well as the number of donations. Will this new opt-out system become the new law or will people still have a say in what happens to their body?
Organ donation would be more likely to rise if people were to understand the critical shortage of organs. Members of the public, across the world, need to make an effort to become more aware of the benefits of the process. For example, advances have been made by medical doctors in order to make it possible to save a life. The guardian claims that in 2016 the NHS lost 457 people due to “shortage of organs”. Pros and Cons of a New Opt-out System of Organ Donation Essay. Methods of organ storage have also improved dramatically since then, yet we still have shortages of organs. As a result of this there is a major increase of people who get added to the list as well as more and more people who die off the list.
We need to consider why this is the case. Many people don’t become donors as they think of it as “dying not whole”, which is true. Religious aspects play a massive role in why people don’t become donors and some may worry about who will actually receive the organs.
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Advancingyourhealth.org claim that “the donor does not usually get to choose who the organs go to, and perhaps an organ will go to someone of a different faith, political viewpoint or temperament than the donor”. Another fear is that people feel as though doctors will terminate life support if they’re aware that they are a donor. Many non-donors don’t trust the medical community when it comes to organ donation as they wish to have their own say in what happens to their body. Donating organs can seem daunting. Some families of donors can become upset by the fact that bodies are kept in life support as they go through the procedure. Specialists in transplants only take tissues from the body of the person who is brain dead but also occasionally the body is sustained in what is known as a ventilator to keep the heart beating while doing the surgery. Donation is made out to be this amazing thing but people just worry that it might be possible for them to feel the pain of organs being ripped out and detached from their body. But can this be completely true? Pros and Cons of a New Opt-out System of Organ Donation Essay.
Organ donors feel that if they save a life it will remove grief away from themselves. Compared to people who are not on the donor list, donors seem to be motivated and highly educated. Individuals who become donors are the ones who are willing to help save a life. Nursingtimes.net claims that “a lack of knowledge is largely to blame for the lack of donors.” Members of the public urgently need to educate others on selfless acts. In reality, many people just think that if there dead, there dead. Who cares what happens to their body. Once they die, doctors can do whatever they wish with the body, they see it as if they no longer need the parts. But should this really be the way to encourage more people to agree to donation?
Currently, one hundred and fifteen thousand females and males of many generations lie in wait for organ transplants in order to keep their lives going. People wish for this second chance at life; they feel as though this will save them from having any treatments to survive but it also costs a fortune. This allows them to feel normal, as if they are able to live a standard lifestyle. Advancingyourhealth.org claim that “for the family of the deceased donor, they feel a sense of goodness that came from a tragedy – that if the organs are transplanted into a young, deserving person, then their loss was not in vain.” This tells us how donor families don’t necessarily grieve as much for their loved ones as they know that some part of them lives within another. The opt out system will help our society as well as the world to save people from unnecessary suffering. Doctors around the world are urging potential donors to give permission for organ and tissue donation and encourage as many people as possible to save as many lives as they can. They also encourage donations from living people as well as people who have passed away due to the excellent outcomes and the patients don’t have as long of a waiting time to receive an organ.
The new opt out system has many benefits as well as negatives but is it really going to be as successful as they say it is. Although the majority of our population say that donation is a wonderful gift, doctors would have to depend on the fact that people are informed and know everything they possibly need to about the process to make a decision either way. The reality of this new system is really just a form of stealing as no true confirmation is given. Blogs.bmj.com claims the opt out system was rejected in Brazil when “only a year after it began which demonstrates the problems such a system would face, especially when families were not allowed to overrule decisions”.Pros and Cons of a New Opt-out System of Organ Donation Essay. Problems will most likely occur if donors don’t 100% agree with their flesh and blood about their consent as this could cause trust issues between their doctors and families. The opt out system is a great idea as it could save many lives but will need a lot of focused thinking if it is to truly revolutionise our approach to the subject.
In conclusion, the opt out system is a great idea but has its many flaws. In my opinion I feel as though people should have a say in there right to their own body, we shouldn’t have to state before we die that we do not want to be sliced open and parts taken from us. I am in favour of organ donation but only if the person wishes for parts of them to be donated in order to save another life. I think that it will be interesting to see how this new system plans out as although they say it’s going to save more lives, we will be able to see with our own eyes how successful the new law will really be. Donors should be able to believe that everyone’s life is blessed and that all recipients will be honoured to have that second chance at life and, perhaps in turn, pass that onto someone else. However, the new law for the opt out system has been shown by studies that it is not likely to increase the number of donors. This is due to the fact people wish for a say in the right to their own body.
The advent of the concept of organ transplantation came as an important breakthrough in the medical field, in the 20th century. The idea behind organ donation and transplant is simple. A healthy organ (such as heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, pancreas, and intestines) or a tissue (such as bones and bone marrow, veins, cornea, heart valves, tendons, and skin) is removed from the body of the donor, living or dead, and is transplanted in that of the recipient. Such a surgery imparts a second chance to the recipient to lead a healthy life.
People may have many doubts regarding organ donation. While a person may wish to donate organs, his/her religious beliefs or family may contradict the same. However, the fact is that a selfless action like this, though controversial, can tilt the balance of life and death in favour of a person in need. Therefore, it is very essential to know and understand the pros and cons of donating organs, before one opts to do so. Pros and Cons of a New Opt-out System of Organ Donation Essay.
Advantages of Organ Donation
People have many fallacies regarding organ donation, which stem due to lack of awareness. Organ donation has numerous benefits, and some of them are very obvious.
Social Responsibility
One has a social responsibility to do something for the betterment of the society in return of what he/she receives. Donating organs to the people in need and enabling them to survive is a good way by which one can serve the society. This way, one also helps humanity to a great extent. Moreover, the act of donating organs also ensures that a part of the donor stays alive (in someone else’s body) even after his/her death.
Helps the Families of the Deceased to Overcome Grief
When a loved one dies, the grief-struck family attempts to do everything that can help them overcome their sorrow. Some of them might resort to making charity on behalf of the deceased, while some others may decide unanimously, to donate the organs of the deceased and to gift a healthy and a productive life to a person in need. Though it doesn’t take away the pain of the loss, the very thought that somebody is able to live a comfortable life with the help of the heart or the eyes of one’s loved one, is very satisfying.
Imparts a New Hope to Live a Fruitful Life
Organ donation gives a new ray of hope to the recipients. The recipients are patients suffering from dysfunctional or failed organs/tissues. A sheer gesture of donating one’s healthy organs to such patients would give them a chance to live a healthy life for the second time. While some might be able to see after an eye transplant, some others might actually be able to live after, say a heart transplant. Improves the Quality of Life Transplanting healthy organs from the body of one person to that of the other also helps to a great extent to improve and enhance the quality of life of the recipient. This can be best witnessed in case of patients who suffer from kidney disturbance or failure. In order to live, they have to depend completely on kidney dialysis, and external artificial replacement for the function performed by the kidneys. The process is not only time-consuming and repetitive, but is also extremely expensive. Pros and Cons of a New Opt-out System of Organ Donation Essay A kidney transplant means a completely new and a healthy kidney in the patient’s body. This enables the patient to return to his/her normal routine, wherein he/she does not have to depend on artificial treatments in order to be alive. Saves Money Organ donation helps to reduce the hospital expenses of the recipient. The transplant may seem expensive when one actually gets it done, but in the long run, it saves a lot of money that would have otherwise been spent on treatments such as kidney dialysis, which demand heavy expenses from time to time. This is because the patient would receive a healthy organ from the donor, which will then perform its functions on its own.
Provides Material for Medical Research
Some people opt to donate their organs, and sometimes their entire bodies to hospitals, universities, and other medical research facilities. The medical scientists perform experiments on these donated organs, tissues, and bodies, in order to find cures and treatments for various complex medical conditions such as cancer, diabetes, etc. The newly found treatments further aid the medical practitioners in saving human lives. Today, organ donation and organ transplantation has become routine in the field of medical sciences. The success rate of such surgeries is high. The number of donors is also on an increase year by year, with the awareness regarding organ donation spread among more and more people.
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Disadvantages of Organ Donation
Organ donation and organ transplantation have always stirred a controversy, right since the beginning. People, who did not believe in the possibility of organ transplantation, criticised its earliest pioneers, primarily on ethical grounds. The argument was against the removal of vital organs and tissues from one human body and transplanting them into the other. Nevertheless, there were also many, who were in favour of the same because it saved lives. However, organ donation does have some disadvantages, although most of them result from popular misconceptions.
Complications During and After Surgery
There are certain possibilities of complications arising during and after the surgery that is performed for extracting the organs from the body of a living donor. Pros and Cons of a New Opt-out System of Organ Donation Essay. Some of these complications might include excessive bleeding, clotting of blood, and/or infection on the site on which the surgery is conducted. While the doctors might be able to control most of these complications, there have also been some extremely rare instances, wherein the complications have proved to be fatal for the donor. Hampers the Overall Health in the Long Run Depending on the organ a live donor donates, he/she might face certain adverse effects due to its absence, in the long run. For instance, if one of the kidneys is donated, it might cause hypertension or kidney failure in the future. Similarly, a lung donor may suffer from various respiratory disorders, and a liver donor may face various gastrointestinal problems or liver failure. Psychological Effects on the Donor’s Family Organ donation might have adverse psychological effects on the family of the donor. In case of a deceased donor, the very thought of burying/cremating him/her without the vital organs can be extremely disturbing and painful. It might further add to the family’s grief. On the other hand, if the donor is still alive, the idea that he/she is living without one of the vital organs can be very unpleasant and upsetting for the family. Pros and Cons of a New Opt-out System of Organ Donation Essay.