Compensation for Organ Donation

Compensation for Organ Donation

Life comes with many different aspects that are sometimes tough, and we have to be prepared for that. Many of us are sometimes "dealt" the wrong hand and do not know where to go from that point, except for where we have to go, and have to do in a life-or-death situation. What if that place is hard to get to? What if the people who are needed for survival are unwilling? What if they could be convinced? I am referring to waiting transplant patients, who are dying from their conditions because they are not enough live or eligible deceased organ donors. What is widely known to be a motivator behind progressive action? The promise of getting something in return: compensation. Even though ethics and morals are involved with the idea of organ donation, if people are compensated for donating their organs, then it would not be such a shortage of available organs to waiting, transplant patients. Along with that, it would also aid donors or their families financially.

In a 2006 edition of the Los Angeles Times it is stated more than 66,000 Americans are languishing on the national waiting list for kidneys -- 10 times the number of kidneys transplanted from deceased donors each year. And the list keeps growing, with a queue of more than 100,000 expected by 2010 (Postrel B.17). Sadly, the estimate of Americans awaiting kidney transplants has risen, but there are only so many who are eligible to be active on the list, due to health or other requirements that have not been met. In total today, there are over 100,000 active waiting list transplant patients that are waiting on organs. Organ transplants are very expensive, and the cost ranges. These costs includes paying many aspects and people when dealing with the organ itself, hospital stay, rehabilitation, drugs needed to maintain, and of course the surgeons,

Transplant 30 Days

Pre-transplant Procurement Hospital

Transplant Admission Physician

During Transplant 180 Days

Post-transplant

Admission Immuno-

suppressants Total

Heart Only $34,200 $94,300 $486,400 $50,800 $99,700 $22,300 $787,700

Single Lung Only $7,500 $53,600 $256,600 $27,900 $84,300 $20,500 $450,400

Double Lung Only $20,700 $96,500 $344,700 $59,300 $113,800 $22,800 $657,800

Heart-Lung $49,100 $151,900 $682,500 $73,000 $143,300 $24,700 $1,123,800

Liver Only $21,200 $73,600 $286,100 $44,100 $77,800 $20,600 $523,400

Kidney Only $16,700 $67,500 $92,700 $17,500 $47,400 $17,200 $259,000

Pancreas Only $16,500 $68,400 $93,400 $16,300 $58,700 $22,200 $275,200

Intestine Only $48,400 $77,200 $743,800 $100,600 $124,300 $27,500 $1,121,800

the specific numbers can be observed through Figure 1.

Fig. 1 Estimated U.S. Average 2008 First-Year Billed Charges Per Transplant

So why have an issue like this become so controversial? As human beings we have a conscious, and sometimes our conscious is not practical. We see people suffering and dying, but yet it is hard to let go of what is ethically right. This type of conscious has hindered the issue of organ transplantation from becoming better. For years, the idea was that because organs are precious elements to the human body, they cannot be