Should Organ Markets Be Legal In Australia? (Essay Sample)

Should Organ Markets Be Legal In Australia?
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Should Organ Markets Be Legal In Australia?
Organ markets exist across the world, both legal and illegal. The markets serve the purpose of providing organs needed by patients, often at a steep price or through donations from close relatives or donors. The field of medicine and surgery has improved tremendously in the last century, enabling the transplantation of many organs such as corneas, hearts, lungs, and kidneys to save lives. The success rate of organ transplants has also improved over the years with the advancement in technology and research. Organ donors can be alive or dead. Some people donate their organs upon being diagnosed with terminal illness so that others can use some of their healthy organs upon their death. Due to a rise in ailments that affect specific organs that can be transplanted, the demand for human organs has increased significantly giving rise to legal and illegal organ markets. Organ markets present moral and philosophical challenges and dilemmas. However, they serve a purpose which is to save lives. Organ markets should be legalized in Australia and be highly regulated with a focus on cadaveric donations.
Organ transplantation is a highly successful approach at saving the lives of patients but the organs in the black market are often obtained from living people in poor nations. This often creates a moral challenge because it promotes the exploitation of the most vulnerable in poor nations. In nations such as Bangladesh, the poor donate organs or are threatened with violence by criminals who later sell the organs at a huge profit (Moniruzzaman, 2018). In the black market, organs can also be acquired voluntarily. In such cases, residents of poor nations are more vulnerable to exploitation due to their socioeconomic status. Where organs are obtained from voluntary donors, in legal or illegal markets, the purpose of saving lives is fulfilled with minimal consequences. Donors receive a large financial payoff and in return help in saving lives elsewhere.
I think that organ markets should be legalized in Australia but there should be tight control regarding the organizations that sell or perform transplants in each region. For example, by limiting each region to one organization or institution, the human organs market in Australia can be monitored and regulated easily. In 2003, there were over 700,000 people in the world on dialysis (Erin & Harris, 2003). Hundreds of thousands of people die every year globally due to kidney diseases. The presence of organ markets could reduce the number of deaths significantly. Loss of life due to the unavailability of donated organs is a major problem not only in Australia but across the world. In most cases, donors live to their full life expectancy after donating organs such as kidneys. Therefore, most healthy people are in a position to donate a kidney and live normally. Legalizing organ markets in Australia could potentially save thousands of patients without causes any adverse effects on the donors.
A market-based procurement system of human organs in Australia could solve the organs shortage problem in record time. There are various ways in which a legalized organ market system can be implemented such as through family rewards and payment for consent (Albertsen, 2020). The presence of a legalized market for human organs presents its own challenges. The number of people that donate out of altruism is likely to drop sharply upon the introduction of a legalized market. Additionally, there is always the threat of potential donors being harmed or coerced into donation. With tight regulation, incidents of violence and coercion can be reduced significantly but not eliminated. There is also likely to be an increase in the commodification of human organs hence affecting interpersonal relationships. However, Australia is considered a first world country and therefore, the regulations can be implemented and the market controlled to a large extent because the authorities are well-equipped to do so. Therefore, the benefits of legalizing organ markets in Australia exceed the risks.
The legalization of organ markets p