We are in an era of advance innovation bringing about ease in the lives of humans. The health sector has experience series of progressive growth in terms techniques and technological development available to further reduce rate at which illness and diseases endanger human lives. Among such innovations comes organ donation/ organ transplant. In a simple term, It is a procedure that involves voluntarily donation of an organ by a person and used by another. In this era, we have more diseases than medicine, organ donation seems like a preferable solution.
Each country have there own policy when it comes to matters of organ donation but much emphasis has always been placed on the fact that it is voluntary, even for the dead. Harvesting someone's organ without following the legal procedures of seeking the permission of the person or the family of the deceased is considered an act of illegal organ harvesting or organ trafficking which is considered a crime in most countries. Which means there are lot of regulations involved in matters concerning organ donation in order to prevent the misuse of the exercise. I made mention of the fact that organ donation is a voluntary exercise in a case whereby a country decides to make it mandatory there are few things to consider.
- Increased number of organs available for donation: There are a lot of people out there currently on a long list of people in need of organ transplant and the sad news is that it might never reach their turn before they run out of time. Making organ donation mandatory will increase the number of organs available for donation for those in need of it.
- Reduced cost of organ donation: As a result of scarcity of organ donors, for some people who are willing to donate their organs prefer to do it at a cost that isn't cheap. One of the reasons why most people are unable to get an organ transplant is not due to scarcity only but due to the fact that they are unable to afford it. In a case whereby we have lot of organ donors in circulation, there wouldn't be a need to pay a dime to get an organ for those in need of it.
- Infringement of religious beliefs and cultural perspectives: In a country such as mine, when it comes to matters of organ donation not everyone consider it to be an ideal practice because we all have different kind of religious beliefs and cultural background that influences our way of thinking. I know of people who consider blood transfusion to be a taboo, now imagine imposing mandatory organ donation on such people, it is without doubts that they will sure rebel against such policy.
- Misuse of policy: The existence of corruption is no news to anyone and in my own country, the influence of corruption has spread across every sector including the health sector. Imagine the so-called corrupt government officials in the position to decide what to do with organ donation exercise. I say this without any remorse, as time goes on it wouldn't be a surprise if the organs that were donated is being used for other purposes.
- Disregard for human lives With mandatory organ donation exercise, it will be certain that anyone on the verge of death is a potential organ donor. Here comes the tricky part, do you think our so called doctors will consider such a person as someone worth saving or as a potential organ donor? I mean if the persons dies he/she organs will be harvested to save another person's life but it would not change the fact the organ donor also deserves to live. Medical practitioners will find themselves in a position whereby they will have to choose who deserves to die and who deserves to live, isn't that toying with human lives?
Mandatory organ donation, is it a kind of policy I can follow? Well, I don't think I have any issues with the exercise, I mean having to save other people's lives with organs I'm no longer in need of, what use is an organ to a dead person but then I still strongly believe organ donation should not be forced on people, it should be something people willing without the fear of sanctions or being coerced. If it turns out to be a forced policy instead of voluntary, it will become a reason for people to rebel which would cause far more greater issues that the one we are trying to solve.
This write-up was inspired by weekly featured content titled "Organ donation is a must" in hive learners community.
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