my blog entry: organ trading

here goes my first entry

URL: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070228/lf_nm/singapore_organs_dc_3

This article talks about the sensitive issues surrounding the donation of organs of dead people. In Singapore, the current Human Organ Transplant Act (HOTA) states that hospitals may use organs of all non-Muslim patients who die unless the patients have personally opted out of the scheme.
Many people were willing to donate, but few came forward to do so. So HOTA was introduced in 1987 to address the shortage of kidney donations. All Singaporeans and Permanent Residents are automatically included in this scheme unless they indicated their wish to be left out. Initially in 1987, only kidneys were allowed to be taken and only if the cause of death was accidental. In the amendment to the Bill in 2004, HOTA was extended to include death by all causes and transplantation of liver, heart and cornea.
The big hullabaloo over organ donation was that all citizens were assumed to be willing donors. The fact is, since HOTA was introduced in 1987, those who were already over 21 may not have been fully aware of what HOTA was. The Ministry of Health states that when a person turns 21, he or she is sent a brochure of HOTA, but it did not say if those already 21 were duly informed. Therefore, even if a person was unwilling to donate, if he did not know about the scheme, his organs were automatically used for transplantation.
The argument here is that instead of the state “requisitioning” the organs upon death, the donors be allowed to sell their organs. Those in support of this notion say that if monetary incentive makes a person willing to donate his organs, so be it. Better that than go against the wishes of the dead. The problem with such organ trading is that it creates a black market and differentiates the rich from the poor. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the donors are usually the poor or the uneducated, where their goal is to get as much money as possible. However, organ traffickers set the buying price at as low as US$1000, and the selling price at as much at $200,000. This means that only the rich get to benefit from the organ trade. This is precisely why HOTA was introduced; to give everybody an equal chance to get a transplant.
Personally, I oppose organ trading, as I feel it is an exploitation of the poor people and a sort of “social status” to be able to buy organs. I feel that organs should go to people who need them the most, not to the highest bidder on the black market. However, I do agree that before any removal of organs is made, the family should be consulted first, as technically they are the deceased’s closest kin, not the state. I do hope most people will be willing to donate their organs as it will seriously benefit the pool of patients out there waiting for organs.