Scott Carney The Case For Mandatory Organ Donation Essay

Organ Donation Living organ donation is the process through which a person donates organs or tissues that they can live without. During the past years, the organ shortage increased, which is one of the reasons why living organ donation became an option. After reading about it, I decided to consider the possibility of becoming a living donor.

One important reason why I want to become a living donor is that the waiting list keeps growing, and the number of donors keeps decreasing. The amount of people on the waiting list is increasing day by day, but the amount of living and dead donors isn’t. Scott Carney states on his article “The Case for Mandatory Organ Donation” that, “At present there are more than 90,000 people waiting for kidneys but only about 14,000 donors enter the system each year” (615). The lack of kidneys is a great example of the decreasing number of donors in the United States. Waiting lists grow because there aren’t enough organs; therefore, this is becoming an endless cycle. I know I can’t donate much while I am alive, but I’m sure that it will still make a difference.
I read that kidney donations are very simple procedures, and that as long as you are healthy, you can donate one. I know that I could live a perfectly healthy life with only one kidney, which is why I don’t mind donating one to someone that truly needs it. Of course I would have to take care of myself a little bit more, but I think it’s worth it. Virginia Postrel mentioned on her article “The Surgery Was Simple; the Process Is Another Story” that, “Every two hours, an American dies waiting for a kidney transplant” (626). Those are way too many persons that could be saved by living