Organ donation: Difference between revisions

Healthy humans have two kidneys, but can live a healthy life with only one. This enables living donors (''[[inter vivos]]'') to give a kidney to someone who needs it, with little to no long-term risk.<ref name="d421">{{cite web | title=Living donor kidney transplant | website=[[National Health Service]] | url=https://www.nhsbt.nhs.uk/organ-transplantation/kidney/receiving-a-kidney/living-donor-kidney-transplant/ | access-date=May 11, 2024}}</ref><ref name="Ekholm_1997">{{cite journal |last1=Fehrman-Ekholm |first1=I |last2=Elinder |first2=C G |last3=Stenbeck |first3=M |last4=Tyden |first4=G |last5=Groth |first5=C G |display-authors=3 |date=October 15, 1997 |title=Kidney donors live longer |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9381544/ |journal=Transplantation |volume=64 |issue=7 |pages=976–978 |doi=10.1097/00007890-199710150-00007 |pmid=9381544 |access-date=May 11, 2024}}</ref> The most common transplants are to close relatives, but people have given kidneys to other friends. The rarest type of donation is the undirected donation whereby a donor gives a kidney to a stranger. Less than a few hundred of such kidney donations have been performed. In recent years, searching for altruistic donors via the internet has also become a way to find life saving organs. However, internet advertising for organs is a highly controversial practice, as some scholars believe it undermines the traditional list-based allocation system.<ref>{{cite journal | journal=[[Hastings Cent. Rep.]] | last=Appel |first=Jacob |author-link=Jacob M. Appel | title=Organ Solicitation on the Internet: Every Man for Himself? |volume=35 |issue=3 |date=May–June 2005 | pages=14–15 | pmid=16092393 |doi=10.1353/hcr.2005.0052 | s2cid=144121833 }}</ref>

 

The issue of the black market for organs being legalized has become a widespread debate because if this happens then individuals will most likely be coerced into selling their organs. Additionally, even if there were to become regulations against it most individuals who would be coerced into doing this would most likely be unable to afford legal protection.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Taylor |first1=J S |title=Black markets, transplant kidneys and interpersonal coercion |journal=Journal of Medical Ethics |date=December 2006 |volume=32 |issue=12 |pages=698–701 |doi=10.1136/jme.2005.015859 |pmid=17145908 |pmc=2563357 }}</ref>