WENHAO.

ZHOU

Academic Research and Writing 1

March 12, 2021

A Good Dose of Medicine—Strict regulation

Global demand for organs is soaring. Scandals of organizations and corporations

illegally acquiring organs and tissues for profit are rampant. So what we urgently need now

is to establish a strict regime about the donation. Strict regulation of the market for human

organs and tissues donation will protect the public and reduce exploitation within the

system. While some bioethicists argue that the regulation of organ donation may become a

legitimate tool for the rich to exploit the poor and violation of moral ethics. In this paper, I

will talk about how to go about strict management of the market: First of all, the

government should legalize the organ and tissue donation. Second, we need to eliminate

some misconceptions. At the same time, I will focus on what the benefits of strict regulation

would be. And what the disadvantages are if we do not strictly manage the market

What should we do to make a strict regulation?

First, we need to legalize the sale of human organs and tissues. if we do not, there

will be many problems with trafficking. Because it is illicit, people who sell organs are usually

treated unfairly.For example, Indigent donors may be subject to violence; middlemen may

cheat the poor donors about the dangers of the procedure and the price of their organs. In

the first known case of human organ trafficking, an unscrupulous and shady middleman

named Rosenbaum extracted $160,000 in profits (Caplan, 2010). These unscrupulous

businessmen sell at high prices to resell the organs of living organ donors, but buy them at

low prices. They also collude with funeral parlors to obtain human organs from cadavers to

sell to technology companies for research. As Michele Goodwin says “ But it’s set up in such
a way where only companies, brokers, and middlepersons receive compensation, and family

members don’t. It’s an underhanded way of dealing with the public”(as cited in

Howley,2009). This greatly exploits the public interest. So what we urgently need now is to

legalize the sale of the organs and tissues in order to protect the legal rights of organ

donors. After legalizing the sale of the organs, organs have been commoditized. According

to the AMA Code of Medical Ethics, however, potential commercial applications must be

disclosed to a donor before a profit is realized on products developed from commercial

materials(Schleiter,2010). This fully protects the donor’s right to free choice.

Second, when we make a strict regulation about organ donation, we need to

eliminate two misconceptions. Exchange legalization will eventually become another form

of underground market. On the contrary, if the government can set up a regulatory regime

to protect donors, such as, paying potential donors cash or other forms of compensation, it

can avoid the occurrence of trafficking. Meanwhile, with proper ethical control, people can

be motivated to donate their organs. It will eventually increase the supply of organs, and

also protect public rights and interests. The other misconception is that a compensation

system injures desperate people. The government should offer in-kind rewards to avoid risk.

In this way, indigent people will not act irrationally because they are desperate for money.

This allows people to freely and rationally choose whether or not to sell their organs.

References

Caplan, A. (2009)”The Trouble with Organ Trafficking” In M.L. Kennedy and W.J. Kennedy

(Eds.), Writing in the disciplines: A reader and rhetoric for academic writers (7th ed.)

Boston. Pearson. (Original work published 2008)

Howley, K. (2009) “Who Owns Your Body Parts?”In M.L. Kennedy and W.J. Kennedy (Eds.),

Writing in the disciplines: A reader and rhetoric for academic writers (7th ed.) Boston.

Pearson. (Original work published 2008)

Schleiter, K. (2010)” Donors Have No Rights to Donated Tissue”In M.L. Kennedy and W.J.

Kennedy (Eds.), Writing in the disciplines: A reader and rhetoric for academic

writers (7th ed.) Boston. Pearson. (Original work published 2008)