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vignette
Julie is 16 and a half years old. She is excited to get her first driver’s license. She has been studying hard for her driving test and is ready to answer all of her driving test correctly until she gets to her question of whether to become an organ donor. She stared at it for a moment, and then she couldn’t help but look up from her test. she doesn’t know what to do. She frantically searches for her waiting mother somewhere near her crowded DMV.
Julie fiddles with her pencil. No one had prepared her for this question. Which answer is correct?
Decision-making issues for minors
Every year, millions of youth under the age of 17 are asked to answer legally binding questions about which they know nothing. Because the demand for donor organs and human tissue is higher than the number of donors, the laws that make these ignorant decisions legally binding increasingly favor the donor industry. But maybe we should ask ourselves: Are my children informed of the consequences of that decision? Sounds so sweet and noble. That’s what every good citizen should do, right?
Unintended consequences of agreeing to become a donor
Most of us (whether under 17 or older) are comfortable in the belief that our decision to donate our organs will save the life of a stranger, and we agree to become organ donors. To do. But what we may not know is that Really It happens when our bodies are donated to science. A body broker makes about $3,000 to $10,000 for buying and selling whole human bodies. But when sold piece by piece, it’s worth much more. For example, a broker can earn his $3,750 on the lower body, $500 on the head, and $350 on each leg. Some of the implications of this market are listed below.
- If you consent to organ donation, you are likely consenting to “whole body” donation. What does that mean? Well, the organ transplant industry is highly regulated, so you can safely assume that your organs will be used wisely and with dignity. However, the industry of buying and selling remaining people is less regulated (Shapiro, 2012). Most of you will end up working in product development or helping desensitize medical students (a required part of training). example? The amputated leg may be connected to a treadmill to develop a prosthetic leg. You probably didn’t know that.
- In the United States, almost anyone can buy and sell body parts. You probably didn’t know it either (Grow & Shiffman, 2017).
- Some people are asked to become donors under duress. For example, poor people are often blackmailed into donating their bodies to science to cover the final expenses. Many families cannot afford cremation, let alone a funeral. The option of donating the remains of a loved one to science offers them a way out. However, psychological research refers to this group as a vulnerable population. Such groups are typically protected by federal law from being asked to make decisions under these circumstances. But in the body-trafficking industry, smart companies seem to be targeting the vulnerable rather than relying on the wealthy.
- The considerable value of each part of the human body must influence the last efforts to keep dying people alive. If their organs and tissues are rare and worth more than they actually are, they should be more likely to be taken off life support early than if their cadaver parts have no value to science or industry. . Body parts only live for a short time after death, and the industry doesn’t care about diseased or decaying tissue. Therefore, organs may be harvested while the donor’s tissue is still viable (alive) to save someone with a better outlook.
Taking things from the dead for the benefit of the living.
Source: Hablot Knight Brown/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain
A call for primary intervention—let the children know
Curiously, the need to provide information to underage donors is not the current focus of policymakers. Instead, the focus is on informing parents of minor donors of the need for more donors (CS Mott Children’s Hospital, 2018). To be fair, this is not without good reason. Because replacement organs for young people are a scarce resource and the need is great (Meinecke, 2017).
However, these results are not rare. At some point, most of us will be asked to agree to a legally binding decision when obtaining a driver’s license. However, we are not fully informed of the consequences of that legally binding decision.
A small request
Please educate us first before asking us to participate in something we know little about. Make informed decisions about your body’s final destination. This is especially true for children who want to get their license and are on the difficult path to adulthood.
