Pros And Cons Of Organ Trafficking

Organs: Exploitation through black market trafficking In recent years the advancement in medicine has been unprecedented and the realm of organ transplantation is no different. Unfortunately, there are always some people that like to take advantage of advancements in medicine and exploit others for their own gain. As the increase in organ transplant requests goes up so does the demand of organs on the black market. In turn as the black market demand goes up so does organ trafficking and the exploitation related to it. It is very important that exploitation is not only wrong both ethically and morally, but specifically in the case of organ transplantation should not be tolerated. Black market organ trafficking should be considered exploitation

In this case the patients would be both the organ donor regardless of social status and the individual that is requiring the donated organ. According to the American Medical Association’s Code of Medical Ethics, one of the principles of medical ethics is that “a physician shall be dedicated to providing competent medical care, with compassion and respect for human dignity and rights” (AMA, 2017). The last part of that principle is key to this discussion, it states that a physician is supposed to provide medical care with compassion with respect to that person’s dignity and rights. It’s these human rights and dignity that are being trampled upon in regards to organ donation and the black market. Obliviously, in order to an individual to be transplanted with an organ a medical professional to going to perform the procedure. But where does this medical professions ethics lay, probably with the wealthy individual that can afford the procedure to begin with. However, this leaves out the individual that is donating the organ, who as evidence shows was most likely poor and impoverished to begin with and can’t afford the proper care to recover. According to a New York Times article “the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that only 10 percent of global needs for organ transplantation are being met” (Bilefsky, 2012). That would potentially leave a larger percent that can be exploited by individuals participating in the selling of organs on the black market. This left over percent of potentially exploited individuals has a difficult time considering that they have to deal with unethical medical professionals that can careless about their well-being. Shafer and Cunningham stated just this point when they said that, “once the recipient has the organ, the profiting parties tend to lose all interest in the donor. Few donors have subsequent access to medical