What are the ethics of organ donation? Essay

Now, some people might feel that doctors won't work as hard to save a donor's life if the donor agreed to donate his or her organs. This is false! "When you go to the hospital for treatment, doctors focus on saving your life - not somebody else's. You'll be seen by a doctor whose specialty most closely matches your particular emergency." (Pence 5) The medical team treating a patient is separate from the transplant team, and there is no communication between the two until after the patient's death. There is also another myth that "a donor is too old to donate". The truth is, anyone can become a donor, at any age. "There's no defined cutoff age for donating organs. The decision to use  [a donor's] organs is based on strict medical criteria, not age." (Pence 7) Doctors decided whether or not organs and tissue are suitable for transplantation. Also, anyone can donate a liver since the liver does not age as quickly as other organs.
What are the ethics of organ donation? Most major religions believe that the act of donating after death is an act of charity and is a gift. There is also the Dead-Donor Rule, which "requires that persons must be dead before organs and tissues are removed from their bodies. This ensures that living but incapacitated persons are not killed by the removal of their vital organs." (Johnson 2) Doctors will not kill a person for the person's organs. It is against the law to do that. It is also against the law to be reimbursed for donating an organ the organ recipient nor the doctor can pay the donor for the organ received. Similarly, the buying and selling of organs is illegal, unless it is for research purposes. There is another practice called "Donation After Cardiac Death". In this practice, "life support is withdrawn from an organ donor, death is declared soon after the heart stops, and the organs are quickly harvested." (Johnson 5) Though it is done only with the consent of the patient, it is controversial because the "length of time before death is declared is determined not by the impossibility of resuscitating the patient, but by the desire to preserve the organs for donation." (Johnson 7) Although this is technically a violation of the Dead-Donor Rule and there are not rigid standards for declaring death, it is still ethical because it is done with family consent.
Around 20 people die each day due to the lack of organ donors and it can easily be fixed by encouraging people to donate their organs and tissues. Becoming an organ donor is easy and donation has many benefits to both the donor and the recipient. Organ donation is ethical and anyone can become a donor. So when you get your license in the near future, or get your license renewed if you already have one, be sure to check the box that says that you want to become a donor, and save some lives!