Monday, May 25, 2009

Human Organ Transplant Act

Human Organ Transplant Act. From the surface of it I would say that legalizing human organ transplant (HOT) would be a great help to many people's lives, especially those who are in desperate need for their organ to be transplanted, eg. liver, kidney.
Imagine that you are terminally ill due to...for example liver failure. You are in desperate need to have a liver tranplant. But so does other patients (who are not at all patient) who shares the same ward with you. To find the right person (since not anyone's kidney can be transplanted to you), you have to wait from a few months to even a few years. And during the period of waiting you will be either suffering, or too weak for the transplant, or give up hope, or dead. The best way, obviously, is to buy a liver from a willing person. But since life is so unfair, it is illegal. So what should you do?
This is what many patients face when they are waiting for a donar to donate their organs to them. This is also the reason why HOTA is debated so much, because people feel that since by legalising it it will bring so much joy to these people, why not? As said before, from the surface of it it looks as though it is very "nice, good, cute and sweet", but this is based on everyone does not have any "tricks up his sleeves" and all the people in the world is not greedy.
Firstly, if HOT is legalised, there WIll be incidents where the poor will be exploited by the rich, who simply uses a small portion of their salary to buy organs from the poor, who even needs that small portion of salary. Also, there will be a rise in black market trades where human organs will be sold at high prices as though they are pieces of meat sold at a butcher's shop. You might be surprised at how willingly poor people of third-world countries will sell their organs for money, due to the fact that they are so poor that selling organ is the last possible way to maintaining a living.
Also, there will be people who are deeply influenced by Mammon and decides that they shall make use of ignorant or desperate third-world poor people as their "harvest" and reap a gigantic profit from the rich people who need the human organs. This can result in a chain of events where poor people may just be kidnapped on the streets and forcefully have their organs removed (and die in the process) so that these Mammons can reap their reward. This can be very scary where people just literally disappear on the streets and people did not even realise that they were gone. There are already live examples of such events in the US, where there is this doctor who takes away people's organs after they were dead, so that he could sell them to the black market.
I feel that if HOT is legalised, there must be strict rules for such trades. Firstly, the willing traders must sign a contract that claims that they ackowledge that they are having an organ trade. Also, the person who is giving away his organ must be fully aware that he is doing so and that he is comepletely willing to do so. Anyone who were caught attempting to harvest on the organs will immediately face the loop and rope, without any excuse, because kidnapping people and forcefully taking away their organs is morally wrong and there is no reason why anyone would do it. Furthermore, the organ transplant operations have to be conducted in a legal hospital and has to be documented by the hospital.
In conclusion, I feel that is is best not to legalise HOT, as even with precautions and laws involved, there will still be people who will abide the law just for the sake of cashing in more money.

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