Kidney Essay

Should it be legal to buy a kidney?
Kidneys are organs in the body, shaped like beans which are almost as big as a persons fist. Every person has two kidney’s, one near the middle of the back, below the rib cage and the other on each side of the back spine. The kidney’s job is to clear waste from the bodies blood and use the extra water and waste to turn to urine, releasing it from the ureters through urination. Each day, the kidney cleans around two-hundred quarts of blood, finally gathering two quarts of waste held in the bladder. The waste in blood originate from the normal breakdown of active tissues such as muscles and consumed food. If the waste is not cleared, it would slowly build up in the body and can cause serious damage and at some point, can be fatal. Nephrons are tiny units inside kidneys, making waste removal possible. (EmedicineHealth, 2012) One kidney has about a million nephrons, meaning a person has two million nephrons in total. In each nephron, has a tiny blood vessel called the glomerulus or the capillary intertwines that is connected to a tiny urine-collecting tube also known as the tubule. The glomerulus is what filters the waste, and the proteins. While the waste is being processed, a chemical reaction takes place as the waste materials and water leave the blood to enter the urinary system. Kidneys that overflow with waste, can end up with waste blockage such as kidney stones that slowly grow inside the kidney. Once the kidney stone takes over the kidney, that kidney no longer functions, which is also known as kidney failure. Other ways to lose a kidney would be kidney diseases. Most attack the nephrons which makes the tiny units lose it’s capability to filter the waste. The most common diseases found that destroy the kidney is diabetic kidney disease and high blood pressure disease. The diabetic kidney disease stops the body from using sugar such as glucose which can become a poison if the glucose is not broken down in the blood and filtered. If blood glucose levels stay high, this could permanently damage the kidney. This applies the same with high blood pressure disease. High blood pressure disease is able to damage the small blood vessels in kidneys, making it unable for the vessels to filter waste from the blood. (Evidence, 2012), There is also the glomerular disease, which is a few types of kidney diseases put together. Diseases such as autoimmune disease, sclerotic disease etc. These diseases attack tiny blood vessels, also known as the glomeruli that is located inside the kidney. If the kidney has to much protein, proteinuria starts to react which is a primary glomerular disease. Another would be hematuria, blood found in the urine. Sometimes both these disease could occur at the same time this is because without a good blood pressure control, the kidney could be overused at once, which leads to kidney failure. (H.W, 2012) Kidney diseases can be cured with an amount of medication and process of treatment. The most common cure for the diseases is known as kidney transplant. To cure diabetic kidney disease, the medications would mostly be ACE, short for angiotensin-converting enzyme. There is an enzyme in the body that produces angiotensin II, a process of substance inside the body, affecting the cardiovascular system by squeezing the blood vessels while releasing hormones that raise your blood pressure making your heart work harder. For Glomerular disease is harder to cure. It takes a process of examining the kidney tissue with a microscope, and because the glomerular gains to much protein, proteinuria starts to react. (Kidney - Proteinuria,2012) The medication needed to help cure glomerular are mainly immunosuppressive drugs such as steroids. Steroids reduces body inflammation and proteinuria depending on how severe the disease is and how fast it is processing. Steroids are mostly given to patients for seven to twelve days to slow down the process of the disease and ease the pain. Although too much steroids could create more damage such as constant weight gain, fluid retention etc. Another way would be kidney dialysis. The process of sucking out waste from the inside of the body. This is already done inside the body, except when you have a failed kidney, you need help, which is why it’s called kidney

Should it be legal to buy a kidney? dialysis. Dialysis cannot cure the endocrine functions of the failed kidney as the kidney produces erythropoietin and calcitrol for the endocrine. Dialysis is unable to correct such complicated structure inside the body, it is only allowed to help out with waste removal and fluid removal. There is also the kidney transplant. It is the procedure of transporting a kidney from one body to another. Kidney transplants are donated from both living and deceased donors, and the liver left expands to take over the work of the missing kidney. For the transplant to work, the donor has to be in perfect health, otherwise after they donate, they could have the same disease at a later time. The surgery starts off by placing the new kidney by your pelvis instead of the back of your spine. The kidney is then surgically connected to the artery which carries the blood by two blood vessels. After the process, the cadaver kidney will function slowly at first, because it is recovering from being brought into a knew system. (H.W, 2012) Dialysis is an easy process of vacuuming the the waste out, quite like liposuction, except it’s for kidney waste. Dialysis narrows down a few of things people can do, women cannot be pregnant, and those will have to be very cautious of what they eat on a daily basis. Kidney transplant gives people a second chance to live and make things right. Although, if the donor and the receiver is not the same receiving type, it would lead to transplant rejection, where the kidney dies and the kidney surgery fails, leaving the person with even more problems because they have an artificial kidney in their bodies. I think that kidney transplant is more effective, mainly because dialysis only removes a small part of the waste at a time. The person’s eating habits cannot change immediately, even with the help of medication. If dialysis is repeated to much, the body is unable to function by itself because it relies to much on surgery process. Kidney transplant continues to improve in science eery year, meaning the success of the transplant increases each year, and more lives are able to live on. Dialysis increases in technology as well, except it only treats a small part of the problem, therefore kidney transplant has a better outcome and result for the people. The advantage of kidney transplant is, after the process, improvements in people’s lives such as quality of life and it also reduces the probability of people dying from kidney failure. (Medical News Today, 2012) The disadvantages of kidney transplantation is that the surgical process is complex and is very risky during the procedure. If the surgery fails, it could lead to infection, bleeding of the stomach, and damage to parts that surround the organs. Death is another possibly in transplant although it only happens rarely. Both kidney transplant and dialysis cost a huge amount of money. The transplant costing 25,000 to 38,000 US Dollars, dialysis costing at least 44,000 US Dollars a year per patient. For the government and hospital’s, this is grand income each time the process is made, for patients, this is crisis and a lot of money is lost, especially if the transplant is rejected. At least half of one person’s income is used for insurance and repair of the machinery that they use, the amount of worker needed to make this surgery possible, if the machine breaks, the company would usually ask the patient to pay in a little more, making the hospital more rich, and the patient’s finance status is lowered and they could no longer be able to pay for medication or treatment. Most people lose their jobs to kidney failure, they lose the strength and stability to get up and work. (MedlinePlus, 2012) This has made many people lose their social life, connections with friends, families, and jobs. After kidney transplant, few people have had to take medication such as immunosuppresant for the rest of their lives. Patients have a slight chance of infection during the surgery, meaning another sum of

Should it be legal to buy a kidney? money to cure the infection because the stomach is open to a huge disease which could lead to death. The amount of money paid for dialysis is too much, the procedure does half the amount of kidney transplant, yet people are paying double the amount. Kidney Transplant is worth doing, except it isn’t very effective if the donor suddenly turns up with kidney failure because only one kidney isn’t enough to support their eating diet. Kidney transplant is a one time treatment where the person can take another chance to live a better life, correcting the mistakes they took in the past. Dialysis only sucks out a portion of waste each time, and it is costing a lot for people and making their financial status unstable. People could lose all their money, especially if they were born in a low-class family or middle-class family. Therefore the best solution for kidney failure would be kidney transplant, a surgery that could give someone a second chance at life without having to undergo surgery every month or year. (EmedicineHealth, 2012) Bibliography :

Edren Info, E. I. (2011, May 24). EdRen - Edinburgh Royal Infirmary Renal Unit Immunosuppressive drugs for renal diseases. EdRen - Edinburgh Royal Infirmary Renal Unit - Edren home. Retrieved November 24, 2012, from http://www.edren.org/ pages/edreninfo/immunosuppressive-drugs-for-renal-diseases.php Evidence - nhs (2012, March 14). Kidney Transplantation - Search Results - NHS Evidence - Search Engine for Evidence in Health and Social Care. Kidney transplantation. Retrieved November 21, 2012, from https://www.evidence.nhs.uk/topic/kidneytransplantation How much does a kidney transplant cost?? « Kidney in the News.. (2011, April 25).Kidney in the News.. Retrieved November 17, 2012, from http:// kidneyinthenews.wordpress.com/2007/12/20/how-much-does-a-kidney-transplantcost/

How Stuff Works, H. W. (2012, June 11). HowStuffWorks "How Organ Transplants Work". HowStuffWorks "Science". Retrieved November 25, 2012, from http:// science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/human-biology/organ-transplant.htm Kidney - Proteinuria (2011, April 25). Proteinuria - National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse. Home Page - National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse. Retrieved November 23, 2012, from http:// kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/pubs/proteinuria/ Kidney Knowledge (2012, May 26). Glomerular Diseases - National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse. Home Page - National Kidney and Urologic

Should it be legal to buy a kidney?
Diseases Information Clearinghouse. 4Retrieved November 20, 2012, from http:// kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/pubs/glomerular/ MedicalNewsToday (2011, November 18). What Is Dialysis? What Is Kidney Dialysis? Medical News Today: Health News. Retrieved November 20, 2012, from http:// www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/152902.php MedlinePlus, M. P. (2012, February 15). Transplant rejection: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. National Library of Medicine - National Institutes of Health. Retrieved November 22, 2012, from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/ article/000815.htm

NCBI (n.d.). The impact of kidney transplantation on heart fai... [Am Heart J. 2009] PubMed - NCBI. National Center for Biotechnology Information. Retrieved November 27, 2012, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19958864 UpToDate (n.d.). Dialysis or kidney transplantation — which is right for me? EvidenceBased Clinical Decision Support at the Point of Care | UpToDate. Retrieved November 22, 2012, from http://www.uptodate.com/contents/dialysis-orkidney-transplantation-which-is-right-for-me-beyond-the-basics

Bibliography: : Edren Info, E. I. (2011, May 24). EdRen - Edinburgh Royal Infirmary Renal Unit Immunosuppressive drugs for renal diseases. EdRen - Edinburgh Royal Infirmary Renal Unit - Edren home. Retrieved November 24, 2012, from http://www.edren.org/ pages/edreninfo/immunosuppressive-drugs-for-renal-diseases.php Evidence - nhs (2012, March 14). Kidney Transplantation - Search Results - NHS Evidence - Search Engine for Evidence in Health and Social Care. Kidney transplantation. Retrieved November 21, 2012, from https://www.evidence.nhs.uk/topic/kidneytransplantation How much does a kidney transplant cost?? « Kidney in the News.. (2011, April 25).Kidney in the News.. Retrieved November 17, 2012, from http:// kidneyinthenews.wordpress.com/2007/12/20/how-much-does-a-kidney-transplantcost/ How Stuff Works, H. W. (2012, June 11). HowStuffWorks "How Organ Transplants Work". HowStuffWorks "Science". Retrieved November 25, 2012, from http:// science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/human-biology/organ-transplant.htm Kidney - Proteinuria (2011, April 25). Proteinuria - National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse. Home Page - National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse. Retrieved November 23, 2012, from http:// kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/pubs/proteinuria/ Kidney Knowledge (2012, May 26). Glomerular Diseases - National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse. Home Page - National Kidney and Urologic Should it be legal to buy a kidney? Diseases Information Clearinghouse. 4Retrieved November 20, 2012, from http:// kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/pubs/glomerular/ MedicalNewsToday (2011, November 18). What Is Dialysis? What Is Kidney Dialysis? Medical News Today: Health News. Retrieved November 20, 2012, from http:// www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/152902.php MedlinePlus, M. P. (2012, February 15). Transplant rejection: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. National Library of Medicine - National Institutes of Health. Retrieved November 22, 2012, from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/ article/000815.htm NCBI (n.d.). The impact of kidney transplantation on heart fai... [Am Heart J. 2009] PubMed - NCBI. National Center for Biotechnology Information. Retrieved November 27, 2012, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19958864 UpToDate (n.d.). Dialysis or kidney transplantation — which is right for me? EvidenceBased Clinical Decision Support at the Point of Care | UpToDate. Retrieved November 22, 2012, from http://www.uptodate.com/contents/dialysis-orkidney-transplantation-which-is-right-for-me-beyond-the-basics