Our group believes that organ trading should be allowed if it is mutually beneficial to both parties involved in the trade.
From the perspective of the patient on the receiving end of the trade, the benefits of organ trading to him are obvious. Organ trading can help to relieve the shortage of organs available for transplant, allowing the patient to have a higher chance of receiving an organ, which will go a long way in his recovery and rehabilitation. As such, from the patient's point of view, organ trading is certainly beneficial as it will improves his quality of life.
However, things are different from the perspective of the organ donor. While it can be argued that organ trading is beneficial to the donor since he receives a monetary return from donating his organ, many fear that permitting organ trading could create a situation whereby the poor and socially-disadvantaged who are unable to make informed choices would be exploited into selling their organs. This reason has been frequently cited by the Singapore government to support its ban on organ trading since such exploitation could subject the unsuspecting donor to potential medical risks. At the same time, the amount of money the donor receives can vary and poor donors might be tricked into accepting a smaller sum of payment. As such, organ trading might not be that beneficial to the donor after all.
Such drawbacks can however be overcome. The organ market can be made into a government-regulated monopsony with the government being the sole purchaser of donated organs. This will ensure equity since all donors will receive the same monetary payment and therefore will not be subjected to exploitation. At the same time, the government should also be the only one that carry out the harvesting of the organ so that it would be in the position to screen donors for potential medical risks prior to removing their organs and for compatibility with the recipient. A real-life case study for such a system would be Iran.
Eugene, Ruiting, Yingying, Yiksin (09S07A)
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We believe that organ trading should be legalized in cases whereby there are low risks for both the patient and the donor.
Under the current legal system in Singapore, organ trading is illegal. Given the high incidence of kidney failure locally, with about 3500 kidney failures a year and 600 on the transplant list, the current legal system has caused some patients to wait up to nine years for a cadaveric donation. Evidently, the Human Organs Transplant Act only serves to delay treatment to patients, and such a long wait can be shortened by legalizing organ trading.
Also, despite strategies to boost the number of organ donors, such efforts have proven to be futile since there has not been any significant rise in these numbers. Simply put, this shows that the supply of transplant organs cannot be left to altruism. Rather, we need to take a new approach in this matter, and the legalization of organ trading may possibly result in a turn for the better. Lives can be saved.
Currently, the shortage of legally available body parts is creating a black market where desperate people needing transplants are taking considerable risks with their health. For instance, the trafficking of human body parts is thriving in India, where the Voluntary Health Association says there are up to 2,000 illegal sales of kidneys a year. However, such old back-street style operations put involved parties at high risk, with the possibility of the lack of proper medical care and proceedings. With legalisation of organ trading, transactions can be carried out within a well-defined framework (i.e. hospital), putting only low levels of risk on both patient and donor. The government would be the ideal party for playing referee to this issue due to its efficiency and ability to rationalise the necessary.
By turning the organ market into a government-regulated monopsony, other issues such as the exploitation of the poor, which Singapore currently cites as one of the most important supporting arguments for its ban against organ trading, can be addressed. By legalizing organ trading, we can save lives, which is definitely most important in the eyes of the majority.
Zhefei, Xueqian, Ivan, Yuwen, Sabrina (09S07A)
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