Youth-anime-fan

I am currently reading a Microeconomics book, and I found an interesting problem my professor gave the class. ----I already have my response, NOT FOR GLEENING HOMEWORK FROM PEOPLE.



Given that organs are donated, there are only a certain number of organs out there for patients. This is the Supply curve S1. This straight line represents a set limit of organs that are available. This hits the demand for those organs at line D1 before the cross in the middle. This means that not enough organs are out there for people to use.
If people sold their organs, price and profit would drive up organ sales, and give a supply curve S2.
Where the supply of S2 joins with the demand curve D1, this means that there are enough organs for those who need them. So there is no shortage, nor any extra organs.

The question posed is that, even though there is a shortage of organs, should we really make them a marketable item?
Some statistics about the organs stuff, and a # of people waiting for them can be found at this web site: United Network for Organ Sharing: Organ Donation and Transplantation







My response to this is:

--removed my name--
Microecon-9am class
Professor Hampton

“The Last Word” on page 64

The current waiting list for organ donors in the US is 94,751 as of Jan. 22nd at 10:54. The longest waiting list if for kidneys; where 69,737 of the 94,751 people are waiting for that specific organ.


I am in disfavor of a legal market coming about for organs. I will state my main reasons: First is that the poor class would not be able to afford the extensive health services that are already a strain on them. As health care rapidly increases, this would increase it at an even faster rate. It would further increase our society’s placement as a cast society. This is where the rich and poor classes are separated by society.
The second is that having increased pressure to donate organs, only those who need the money would consider donating. This is mainly the poor class, which will further shorten their life-span, and thus their opportunity for life. This is another aspect of a cast system where the poor are regarded as something less than the rich. Unfortunately, since a sizeable portion of the poor population is African American, this would instigate and encourage companies to set up donating centers in African American communities. This is the same as with Planned Parenthood, which sets up abortion clinics in mainly African American communities, which is having an affect on the birth rate of African Americans.

Supporting donated organs is necessary, for it doesn’t matter if one is rich or poor. If they want to donate their organs, they can do it with the same pride and thought whether their rich or poor. It is an unfortunate reality that people die while waiting for organs, but how do we know that just as many, if not more people will die just because they cannot afford one? This question poses a particular problem, for if we do go to a market style for organs, if it doesn’t work out—can we go back to the donor system? Over history, one can see that the rich like to stay that way, so they would definitely be in favor of a market system pushing the poor even further into poverty. It would not be easy to go back.



What do you think? Should we sell or donate organs?

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OdysseanPromise

"The rich got rich. The poor got even-- poorer"
-Catch 22's "Permanent Revolution"

That quote is modified off of some other quote which I feel like a bad scholar for not remembering who said that initially, but anyway, that really doesn't matter that much.

Anyway, there are a bunch of theories on this. Yes, probably only poor communities, and the stray hippy, would probably actually donate organs under these conditions, but this could not necessarily be viewed as so much of a necessity of the poor, but rather the deus ex machina for the poor.

Organs, on the black market, go for exorbitant amounts of money. This is given based off of the various risks that one goes through to procure such an organ. Even given that legal stresses were eased and legal selling of organs was allowed, the price for saving a life would be quite high.

The rich and the opulent are often very concerned with the ability to use their wealth, and thus the truly wealthy would not be opposed to dropping TONS of money into prolonging their life of relative obscurity. On the other hand, this gives a poor inner city family an opportunity to start over and move up in the world and completely change their life stories.

Besides, you only need one kidney to survive, so they would still be able to live a perfectly normal life, granted maybe with a bit more of a consideration on personal health.

The big theory now is that supposedly pigs have surprisingly similar organs to humans, so many believe that raising genetically altered pigs to harvest for organs may be the most "ethical" option as to getting plentiful, cheap, third party organs. We'll see how that works out. I mean, we all know that Mad Catz products are crappy. What happens when we start buying the Mad Catz equivalent of kidneys?

longtailedmonkey

Ou, well I was just here to see what some adults and scholars were talking about. Well, I really do think that supporting organ donation and not organ sale is very important. To think that when you die and you donate your organs and manage to save a life is a meaningful thing.
And those who donate organs before death, they are saving lives too but gotta agree, unless they really need the money, most won't donate organs or sell organs. So the amount of people saving lives while alive is low.

So, SUPPORT ORGAN DONATION! Not Organ Sale!

_gwenibe_

Well lets just say Organ sale does occur, yes we will have heaps of organs, but what about those people who obtain those organs in illegal ways? What's stopping people, from knocking out randoms on the street and just harvesting them of their organs? I've heard that it is happening now (please correct me if I am wrong), all it would do is increase the activity, plus as already stated above the poorer people would be able to sell there organs, but what happens when they need one? Will they be able to afford it? Doesn't everyone have the right to be able to live healthly regardless of their income?

So no, organ selling, in my opinion is not a good option

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longtailedmonkey

gwenbibe, I agree with you. Nowadays, we are getting short of law-enforcement officers that are actually there for peacekeeping and not for the bribes, so it's really going to be quite bad if the situation is not well controlled.

OdysseanPromise

Don't believe everything you see on TV about cops.

It may happen, but it isn't nearly as common as our corrupt media has people believe.

atomik_sprout

Dude, selling organs are TOTALLY for the black market. They sell everything from guns, to organs, to babies!

No government would allow the sale of organs. It's just not right. Donating means that the person was WILLING to give up his organs. Selling organs would mean that they were just recoverd off of some dead guy or something illegal-ish like that.

I dunno, don't quote me; I don't really have an educated opinion on this subject.

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http://www.myspace.com/boondocksamurai

Arrianna

Just throwing something in the mix here.

What if instead of having organ selling the government just made it legal for hospitals to harvest organs from healthy people who die from accidents etc.?

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l Stone Hold l Now We're Cooking! l Thanks to Kaos for the awesome sig!

OdysseanPromise

Well, they already do that. That's why they ask you if you want to be an organ donor on your driver's license

Arrianna

Yes, but legal without required consent? Not donating but harvesting.

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l Stone Hold l Now We're Cooking! l Thanks to Kaos for the awesome sig!

OdysseanPromise

That's basically what donating is. They take your organs when you no longer need them, and they determine that they are suitable for use.

You cannot make something like that legal without consent. It is just unethical. A lot of religions have precedents about not disturbing the wholeness of the remains of the body.

But hey, religion is worthless, right?