Transplant Surgery

Transplant surgery can be a very incredible topic. The act of exchanging organs or even body parts to help or even save another persons life is truly amazing. Transplant surgery can save many lives without even affecting the donor at all. Organs can come from any body whether it be deceased, alive, or brain dead. New studies are even trying to get animal organs into humans who need them. The value of having transplant surgery weighs more than not being able to benefit or save someone’s life.

There is nothing un-ethical about where the organs come form as I said organs can come from any human. Live donors willingly consent to donating a non necessary organ to another. So obviously there is nothing wrong about taking someone’s knowing they willingly gave it to you. The transplant surgery itself is perfectly safe. Doctors conduct tests upon tests to find someone perfectly compatible for the organ receiver. Doctors test everything from blood type to tissue type to even x-rays and urine tests. They test everything to make sure the donor and receiver has little to no risk at all. As Denice Grady, a New York Times reporter stated, “Donor deaths are rare, although surgeons have estimated that the death rate for donors in the operation would be 0.5 percent to 1 percent”. There is a risk of less then one percent, that is basically no risk at all. You are way more likely to die of a car crash and we still drive everyday. Other organs can come from deceased patents. As a DMV survey concludes in CT for the year 2004 over 830,000 out of two and a half million licenced drivers have agreed to donate organs. Once again these people have willing agreed to donate their organs upon dying. I, myself have the attitude of, if I’m not using them maybe I can save someone else. What use are organs in the ground? If you knowingly could save someone’s life with out it effecting yours would you do it? About half the people in Connecticut say they would and I say I would too.

A more widely controversial source of organs is a brain dead human. Many people believe you should not take organs for a technically living human. The key word is technically. Although these people still have a heartbeat, they are brain dead. And brain dead means exactly what it sounds like, these people have no more use of their brain. If these people can use their organs to save another persons life so they can be back to normal, then they should. If they can benefit or save someone’s life I feel it is perfectly right to be able to use them . Many people say, what if the brain dead patient comes back to life? As reporter Sanjay Abedin stated, “Fifty five of the respondents poll Believe people who are brain dead might be able to spring back to life. Rest assured, that is medically impossible.” So you can see it is impossible to have a brain dead human be able to really use these organs, why not save another persons life?

The last and most controversial source for organs is animals. All though this has not been done yet, scientists are still working on getting it in use. It may be hard to get used to that idea, but it could end up saving lives all over the world. There is an higher demand for organs than there are donors so using animal organs could give millions the chance to live with out disrupting other human life. Writer Rebecca Williams writes, “ Called ‘xenotransplants,’ such animal-to-human procedures would be lifesaving for the thousands of people waiting for organ donations. There have been about 30 experimental xenotransplants since the turn of the century.” Animals are slaughtered everyday for food with their remains ground up into filler or school lunches. If we could harvest the un used organs and