Should the market through supply and demand determine who receives an organ tran
ID: 2739282 • Letter: S
Question
Should the market through supply and demand determine who receives an organ transplant? Please read what I have posted and access sites below before discussion.
How should we address organ donation shortages? The text discusses a shortage in the organ-transplant market. More than 100,000 Americans are waiting for life-saving kidneys, livers, lungs, and other vital organs. The government doesn’t permit organ sales to occur. In 1984, Congress forbade the purchase or sale of human organs in the United States (the National Organ Transplant Act). Use the following sources to research this example of the price floor set at zero. what should be done about organ shortage, including references to the sources you used. Located in Richmond, Virginia, the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) is a non-profit, scientific and educational organization that administers the nation's only Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network established by the U.S. Congress in 1984. http://www.unos.org/ The U.S. Congress established the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) when it enacted the National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA) of 1984. The act called for a unified transplant network to be operated by a private, non-profit organization under federal contract. http://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/ The Center for Organ Recovery & Education (CORE) is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting donation, education and research for the purpose of saving and improving the quality of life through organ, tissue and corneal transplantation. http://www.core.org/ Be sure to read the attached article as well. be brief please
Explanation / Answer
Answer
No, the market through supply and demand should not determine who receives an organ transplant because organ transplant is related to human life so there should not be any business or financial perspective associated with organ transplant.
UNOS provides a vital link in the organ transplant process. Its policies and computerized network match donated organs with transplant candidates in ways that save as many lives as possible and provide transplant recipients with the best possible chance of long-term survival.
The matching criteria developed by the transplant community, and approved by UNOS’ Board of Directors, are programmed into UNOS’ computer matching system. Only medical and logistical factors are used in organ matching. Personal or social characteristics such as celebrity status, income or insurance coverage play no role in transplant priority.
The process of prioritizing patients for transplantation works in following manner
When a patient is “added to the list,” a transplant hospital adds a patient’s medical information into UNOS’ computer system. When a deceased organ donor is identified, UNOS’ computer system generates a ranked list of transplant candidates, or “matches”, based on blood type, tissue type, medical urgency, waiting time, expected benefit, geography and other medical criteria.
Before an organ is allocated, all transplant candidates on the waiting list that are incompatible with the donor because of blood type, height, weight and other medical factors are automatically screened from any potential matches. Then, UNOS’ computer system determines the order that the other candidates will receive offers.
There are 58 local donor service areas and11 UNOS regions that are used for U.S. organ allocation. Hearts and lungs have less time to be transplanted, so they use a radius from the donor hospital instead of regions when allocating those organs.
Proper organ size is critical to a successful transplant, which means that children often respond better to child-sized organs. Although pediatric candidates have their own unique scoring system, children essentially are first in line for other children’s organs.
Organ matching works in following manner
When a transplant hospital accepts a person as a transplant candidate, it enters medical data—information such as the person’s blood type and medical urgency and the location of the transplant hospital—about that candidate into UNOS’ computerized network.
When an organ procurement organization gets consent for an organ donor, it also enters medical data—information such as the donor’s blood type and body size and the location of the donor hospital—into UNOS’ network. Using the combination of donor and candidate information, the UNOS computer system generates a “match run,” a rank-order list of candidates to be offered each organ. This match is unique to each donor and each organ. The candidates who will appear highest in the ranking are those who are in most urgent need of the transplant, and/or those most likely to have the best chance of survival if transplanted.
The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) Strategic Plan is a roadmap to help prioritize major initiatives of the OPTN. It was approved by the OPTN/UNOS Board of Directors.
The Center for Organ Recovery & Education (CORE) is one of 58 federally designated not-for-profit organ procurement organizations (OPOs) in the United States. CORE works closely with donor families and designated health care professionals to deliver the gift of hope by coordinating the surgical recovery of organs, tissues and corneas for transplantation. CORE also facilitates the computerized matching of donated organs, tissues and corneas.
It is dedicated to promoting donation, education and research for the purpose of saving and improving lives through organ, tissue and cornea transplantation.With integrity and compassion, its goal is to bridge the gap between donor families, health care providers and transplant recipients so that it may forever transform lives.
We can address organ donation shortages by running various awareness and education programs through various media sources to public at large which will encourage more people to make donation of their organs.
There should be non-profit organisation like United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) in each country and all of them should be well inter connected for better administration of Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network which will help in reducing organ donation shortages.
Secondly, Government should establish, promote and regulate more non-profit organizations like The Center for Organ Recovery & Education (CORE) which are dedicated to promoting donation, education and research for the purpose of saving and improving the quality of life through organ, tissue and corneal transplantation which will help in reducing organ donation shortages.