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ID: 4
Posted on: 2012-08-03 07:08:06

Title: How Much Is That Kidney in the Window

Type: Argumentative Essay
Theme: How Much Is That Kidney in the Window
Author: Jan Allen
School: Saunders Secondary School
Class: 10
City: California
E-mail: JanAllen@ymail.com

Text:

In Bruce Gottlieb’s article “How Much Is That Kidney in the Window” Gottlieb argues that the American people should be allowed to sell their kidney. Jack Kevorkian argues that the way that kidneys are recieved from the deceased and from donors does not provide enough kidneys to keep those who need a kidney alive. Kevorkian believes that the sale of kidneys should be permitted and that the lives lost while waiting for a kidney transplant would be saved. Many argue against legalizing the sale of kidneys because of the danger to the donor but there are other procedures being done legally that are more dangerous to the donor than a kidney transplant is. He compares the effect on life expectancy from donating one kidney to be no more dangerous than driving an extra sixteen miles to work each day. Recipients from the sale of a kidney would benefit not only from the fact that there would be more kidneys available but also from the stand point that a kidney from a cadaver last for eight years compared to a kidney from a live donor last more than twice as long. Transplant surgery and postsurgical treatments are very expensive and Medicare pays the medical bills of patients who need dialysis. The federal government and insurance companies could break even within a two year period by purchasing a kidney just from the savings on patients now on dialysis. The government could create a price floor to keep sellers from bidding down the going price for a kidney and should allow the poor to sell a kidney just like anyone else. Legislation could easily draft a law allowing the sale of a kidney but keep other organs from being sold. I agree that the sale of kidneys should be allowed because the recipients and the seller of a kidney would benefit as well as the insurance companies and the government could save a substantial amount financially.
In response to Bruce Gottlieb’s essay on the legalization of selling kidneys, there have been many heated debates over the legalizing the sale of a kidney. I am in full agreement with Bruce Gottlieb over the legalization of selling one’s own kidney. Not only does the donor gain something from being able to make money off such a transplant, but the receiver in need wins as well for getting the life saving treatment he or she needs. Kevorkian states, “As of April 30, there were 44,989 people on the waiting list for a kidney transplant. About 2,300 of them will die this year while waiting.”(2) That number could be reduced to almost no deaths if the selling of one’s own kidney was legal. The fact is that not enough people are dying, or dying quick enough to help the people in need in time. If legalized, that wait would be less than half the original waiting period, perhaps even less than that and would save countless lives. I worked in a hospital for five years and seen how difficult it is for people on dialysis to sit for countless hours, and looking exhausted while going through dialysis. I have talked with the staff in dialysis who told me that many of their patients run out of time while waiting for a kidney or just give up and pass away.
The legalization of selling kidneys would decrease the suffering that these patients go through during dialysis treatments. Gottlieb states, “This brings us to the most powerful objection to the sale of kidneys that, in practice, it would result in the poor selling parts of their bodies to the rich.” Regardless of whether or not the poor would be more likely to sell to the rich is not an issue if the case was that they decided to donate for their own personal interest. Selling is also another way for the poor to help themselves financially while living in poverty, and as an added bonus they may feel that they have also saved someone’s life.
If selling a kidney could save someone’s life and not endanger their own life, I believe that this is something that should be legalized. The fact that a kidney donated by a living donor last more than twice as long as one from a deceased person, and that more lives would be saved speaks for itself to legalize the sale of kidneys. The savings to the insurance companies as well as the government to buy a kidney and be able to recoup that dollar amount rather than paying for dialysis for seventeen years or more should make the government more open to the legalizing the sale of kidneys.

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