In the United States alone, thousands of people each year die waiting for organ transplants. According to the State Department of Health and Human Services there are over 70,000 people waiting for vital organs such as kidneys, hearts, lungs, and pancreases. Each year the waiting lists increases by almost twenty percent each year, as the number of organ donors increases only at minimal ten percent at the same time. This illustrates not only nationally but globally that there is a dire need for more organ donors. Organ transplantation can be good out of tragedy, so that more people should sign up to be a donor, urge others to sign up, and inform their families of their wishes. In order to influence more people to become organ donors, and understand the importance of organ transplantation is to provide medical information as well as information on the benefits and disadvantages of organ transplantation for more people signing up to donate their organs. This will allow potential organ donors with information that will address possible side effects that can be positive or could be negative.
Background
The ideal of organ transplant began in long ago throughout history in which, Ancient Roman, Greek, and Chinese myths include many stories in which organ transplants were performed by spiritual healers and gods. Most of the transplants were performed on cadavers or animals, and mostly done in 800 B.C. According to history, “Indian doctors had likely begun grafting skin---technically the largest organ---from one part of the body to another to repair wounds and burns.” (History, n.d) Moving on the 20th century, European doctors attempted to save many of the patients’ lives that were dying of renal failure by transplanting organs such as kidneys extracted from various animals such as pigs, goats, and monkeys. However, from the procedures the patients did not live for more than a couple of days. (History, n.d) Going further in history several other doctors around the world including Austrian ophthalmologist, Eduard Zirm performed the firs corneal transplant in a man that was blinded by an accident. (History, n.d) French surgeon, Alexis Carrell, received the Nobel Prize as a transplant pioneer that developed new methods for connecting the blood vessels in a successful kidney transplant in dogs. Yu Yu Voronoy, a Ukrainian doctor transplanted the first human kidney from a deceased donor, however the patent died after rejecting it. (History, n.d) Yu Yu Voronoy, would also perform six more transplants in order to treat patients that were dying from, mercury poisoning, acute renal failure, and other problems.
When discussing the needs of organ donors, potential donors must be aware of the facts on donor transplantation. This includes knowing what organs are, as they are defined as any part of body that is made up groups of tissues. When transplanting organs, the doctor transfers tissues or organs from one part of the donor’s body to the recipient, as the recipient is the one in need of the vital organs. In knowing what organ the recipient needs, the doctors will make a diagnosis that will identify any signs of diseases or symptoms to decide what is the best option. When they are able to receive an organ, the donation which is given as a gift will save the patient’s life. In each transplant however, the patients died due in the most part to because of the lack of donors and the effects of warm ischemia (Watson, Dark, 2012) As time progress there were more surgeons that experimented with animal organs and organs used from long deceased donors. It wasn’t until the 1950s that doctors began to realize the need to “avoid excessive ischemic injury and kidneys from live donors began to be used. (Watson, Dark, 2012) The organs were mostly found in relatives, or unrelated donors that were already patients that were having organs removed. One pioneer that realized how to stop rejection was by Joseph E. Murray a Massachusetts’s’ surgeon that used genetic similarity to prevent immune rejection. In 1954 he performed the first successful kidney transplant at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital between identical twins. (Watson, n.d) His surgery was seen as a breakthrough on the importance of finding organs that wee genetically similar. By the late 60’s doctors soon began to figure out ways of performing transplantation on nonrelatives of patients by being able to suppress the patient’s immune response with the use of drugs, although the drugs seemed to be highly toxic. Peter Medawar a British immunologist received the Nobel Prize for discovering drugs used for acquired immune tolerance, where anti-rejection drugs were used in helping patients receive organs from other donors. (History, n.d) There were several risks at the time that included infection, and the loss of life as many recipients didn’t live long after the operation. Years later Dr. Murray soon again made history as the first surgeon to successfully perform a transplantation of the kidney from a deceased donor. (Donate Life NY, n.d) In other parts of the world doctors were continuing to make success by performing successful pancreas, liver, and lung transplants, including Christian Barnard, a South African surgeon that was able to replaces the diseased heart of a dentist with a younger patients that died in an accident. (History, n.d)
Throughout the 90’s brought much more success as more doctors were able to perform successful surgeries of transplanting organs such as, small intestines, liver, baboon to human liver transplant, and partial face transplant. As more legislation passed down including the National Conditions of Participation legislation in which required hospitals to parlay all deaths and those that were imminent to their local OPOs, Organ Procurement Organizations. (Donate Life NY, n.d) More notably however is that there has been a significant shortfall of suitable donor organs that are available, as the number of patients on the waiting lists is exponentially growing, and have also been denied access. In the United States it is reported that over 100,000 patients are on the waiting lists for an organ donation. (History, n.d) Many die as most are not fortunate enough to receive an organ that is compatible or in time
Benefits of Organ Transplantation.
The need for more donors to sign up is pertinent as more patients are signing up for live saving surgeries. The problem lies in many potential donors are unaware of the benefits and the advantages of organ transplantation that includes saving lives, helping families to overcome their grief, saving money in the long term, and be able to supply material for medical research. There is no debate that lack of available donors is due to national ignorance of unaware donors. Many people feel uncomfortable with the act of donating their organs as the thought of death is an uncomfortable subject. There has been many campaigns and organizations that have tried to bring awareness in order to persuade Americans to become organ donors. Saving lives, is the number one and most important benefit and advantage for potential donors to sign up. According to statistics, 10 patients each day will die waiting for an organ transplant, while a new name is added every 16 minutes to the national registry. (LifeSource, 2013) Not only do the donors save lives, but also give the recipients a second chance to live their lives, and improved the recipients quality of life by allowing the recipient’s to no longer be dependent on the costly treatments they needed to survive. They will be able to in time return back to their normal routine, and in some cases give those that needed organ transplants such as eye tissue the ability to see or recovery mobility. (Donate Life NY, n.d) Donors have the ability to save up to eight lives and improve many more by their donation.
When donors give their organs, they help families with their grief, through donor’s death or through the families of the recipient. The families of the deceased donor is able to give life to others, a gift that will help put families in a better place knowing that their loves ones are able to continue to do good long after they have passed. “Of the 2.2 million people who die in America each year, relatively few die under circumstances that make them medically eligible to be either organ donors or tissue donors.” (Organ Transplants. 2013) Families are able to be comforted knowing that their loss will help others, and that the act of donating the organs will save and improve the lives of others in multiple ways. In the long term, donors are medically reimbursed for their donations, and the act of saving lives, helps the recipients with routinely medical costs. The act of donation helps recipients, the hospitals, and the tax payers that will no doubt pay apart in the upkeep and sustainability of patients that need lifesaving surgeries. At this time there is still a debate for those that choose to donate their kidneys or other vital organs to be paid, the thought of incentives will no doubt help to increase the amount of donors on the donor list. (Cutler, 2002) One of the last benefits discussed is the ability to aid medical teams in research for future procedures and cures. Throughout history of the story of organ transplantation there was many failures, but they contributed to the growing knowledge of transplants for the future. With each failure, doctors were able to pinpoint what worked and what didn’t work until they were able to perform successful transplantations. Empirical evidence shown from past research shows that through organ donations, medical teams are able to study the lasting effects, the longevity of the donation, and the use of which method was effective in the transplantation. “Donated organs in research affect untold numbers of patients who can benefit from the medical advances that result from their use in ongoing studies.” (IIAM, 2013) In addition the organs collected from cadaveric specimens are used in medical and pharmaceutical research in the breakthrough treatments for AIDS, arthritis, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, Parkinson’s, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s, and several other illnesses. The use of this information is needed in efforts to convince organ donors to sign up.
Risks of Organ Transplantation
Although there are several benefits, donors must be made aware the negative side effects and the risks associated with organ donation. This includes the high fail risk, the probability of damaging other nearby organs or tissues, the pain and discomfort associated with the surgery, and the ethical dilemma associated with some religious or moral objections. When donors do decide to donate their organs as like in any surgery there will be risks, and there is no guarantee that the surgery will be a success. There has been several evidence that supports this that includes throughout history the several failures of organ transplantation surgery in which the donors did not survive, and the use of anti-rejection drugs resulted in death or infection. (Watson, n.d) While the success rate of organ transplants has risen between 80 to 90 percent, there are still the risks that organs will not be compatible or that the organs won’t help in the longevity of their recipient’s life. According to Transplant Living the risks associated with living organ donation include pain, infection at the site, incisional hernia, blood clots, pneumonia, hemorrhaging, a potential need for blood transfusions, side effects from the anesthesia, and even death. (Transplant Living, 2013) While the transplantation is performed under the same sterile conditions as any major surgery, their surgery can have long term complications for specific organs that includes in the kidney that could be hypertension, proteinuria, or kidney failure. In the lungs there are several complications that includes dyspnea, hemoptysis, pericarditis, empyema, and bronchial stricture just to name a few. (Transplant Living, 2013) In the liver there are complications of bile leakage, pancreatitis, renal failure, gastric perforation, bleeding of the ulcer, or pulmonary embolism. There are also complications in the pancreas, and the intestine.
The complications could lead to psychological concerns where the donations could not work, and the donors will experience several emotions that includes anger, depression, and resentment after the surgery. (Transplant Living, 2013) There is also an ethical dilemma associated with organ donation, in which some may feel that it will conflict with their religious beliefs. In the respect to the donor, the issues circulate around the desecration of the dead body, and the prolonging of the funeral. Which both has been proven false, the larger issues is the want for donors to wound themselves In order to donate their organs. The thought of harvesting organs or selling them presents many ethical complications where one would undergo a small risk in order to save the lives of another. Legally it is against the law to harvest or sell organs, and morally one should not significantly harm themselves in order to save the life of another. (Eisenberg, 2009) The risks of donating a kidney not only poses a major threat to the recipient but to the donor as well. In all religions there is no moral objection to organ donation. The act of organ donation is not only permissible but it is regarded as a noble act for others. This information helps to provide another view in the organ donation argument that will show all sides of organ donation.
Counterarguments
“A careful and detailed discussion for the risks, both known and unknown, the chances of success and failure, and above all, a frank discussion with the donor about the option of using cadaveric organs are absolutely essential. (Diethelm, 1990) Organ donations can lead to several risks that could ultimately lead to death of the organ donor. The negative and complications during surgery and after surgery depends on the case and the medical history of the patients. Organ donors do not want to sign up because of the myths associated with organ harvesting, organ failure, and the illegal selling of organs on the black market. While many organ donors believe that there might be a moral or religious objection to organ donation, all religions are in consensus that it is a noble act to save the lives of another. The complications associated with organ transplantation are significant. This is the case for ever surgery, and they go up due to patient’s medical history but the success rate is between 80 and 90 percent in the past decades.
In conclusion, this paper discussed organ transplantation and the pros and cons of how transplanting organs will help many people. In order to influence more people to become organ donors, and understand the importance of organ transplantation is to provide medical information as well as information on the benefits and disadvantages of organ transplantation for more people signing up to donate their organs. Throughout history, doctors and medical research has improved on the success rate of organ transplantation, due to this the number of people of the waiting list has surged to over 100,000, but the opposite has happened for organ donors. Due to the misinformation of the public on the history and the benefits of organ donations many, patients die waiting for organ donation. When organ donors decide to donate they can save lives, help the grief of their families, save money for society, and improve medical research. However, there are certain risks that organ donors must be aware of that includes, infection, pain, complications associated with specific organs, and death. These risks rise due to the medical history, but donors will be informed by their doctors. All religions are in agreement that organ donation is a noble act that is acceptable and needed to help others, and the want for organ donors is pertinent to the longevity of society.
References
All About Organ Donation. (n.d). Donate Live NY. Retrieved from http://www.donatelifeny.org/about-donation/why-be-an-organ-donor/
Cutler, James A. (2002). Donation benefit to organ donor families: a current debate. Baylor University Medical Center. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1276499/
Diethelm, Arnold G. (1990). Ethical Decisions in the History of Organ Transplantation. Presidential Address. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1358215/pdf/annsurg00171-0009.pdf
Donating for Research and Education. (2013). IIAM. Retrieved from http://www.iiam.org/donatingForResearch.php
Eisenberg, Daniel. (2009). The Organ Shortage. Aish.Com. Retrieved from http://www.aish.com/ci/sam/48954401.html
History Staff. (2012). Organ Transplants: A Brief History. History. Retrieved from http://www.history.com/news/organ-transplants-a-brief-history
Organ Transplant History. (n.d). Donate Life NY. Retrieved from http://www.donatelifeny.org/all-about-transplantation/organ-transplant-history/
Risks. (2013). Transplant Living. Retrieved from http://www.transplantliving.org/living-donation/being-a-living-donor/risks/
Understanding Donation. (2013). Organ Transplants. Retrieved from http://www.organtransplants.org/understanding/
Understanding Death Before Donation. (2013) Organ Transplants. Retrieved from http://www.organtransplants.org/understanding/death/
Watson, C.J.E., Dark, J.H. (2012). Organ Transplantation: Historical Perspective and Current Practice. Oxford Journals, Vol 108. Issue 1. Retrieved from http://bja.oxfordjournals.org/content/108/suppl_1/i29.full
Watson, Stephanie. (n.d). How Face Transplants Work. How Stuff Works. Retrieved from http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/human-biology/face-transplant1.htm
