Organ Transplant Essay -- Health, Diseases, Organ Donation

An organ transplant is a surgical operation conducted to replace an organ unable to function properly with a new one. An organ, in turn, is an accumulation of cells and tissues gathered to perform the functions of body. Therefore, any part of the body which acts as a performer of specific function is called an organ. There are two possible ways of how the organ donation (OD) can take place. The first is the donation of cadaveric organs (organs from recently deceased people). The decision to donate in this way requires the consent of a person in the form of an indication on the driver license, like in the USA (Gruessner, Benedetti, 2008, 54) or health care document as an organ donor card, in Netherlands, Sweden, Ireland, for example (Hareyan, 2007). The second option is the organ donation from the living person. This usually occurs in regard to the close people who need an organ, but also takes place in regard to strangers. Although procedure of organ donation developed rapidly in the recent half a century, it can hardly be claimed good enough to manage supply and demand, well-organized and perfect (World Health Organization, 2010). The dramatic character of the situation can be revealed in the statistics of the waiting list for organs, for example kidney. To understand whether the mismatch of supply and demand for organs have sharpened over time, it would be useful to look at the state of affairs in a particular region, such as EU, for instance. There was a significant increase in the demand for kidney in the EU: from 1980s with just above 2000 candidates to 11082 in 2008. Meanwhile, the amount of transplants which have taken place also increased, but not so profoundly: from 1000 (only from deceased donors) to 4000 (from living an... ... organs can be injected in human body to perform the functions of human body’s organ. But there is a critique to this option as there is no guarantee that artificial organs can be an effective substitute the human organs and there is a probability of the next operations which will be needed to normalize the body condition and to reduce the possible rejection (ibid). Nonetheless, if there is even no trial on how to improve the state of affairs, there is a low chance on progress and future success in this sphere. Consequently, the practice of new methods of treatment can ensure the needed effects and identify possible problems, which then, can be avoided in the real operations. The work of the specialists in the Center for Bioethics might demonstrate that there can be several ways of how to increase organ donation rates to diminish current weaknesses in this sphere.