Today's prompt topic is deep and very important as we discuss ways we can save lives in our world today. Organ donation is not something I have thought about deeply the way I did this morning prior to writing this post. If, for instance, organ donation is made compulsory by the government? Like taking an organ from the recently deceased and donating it to the sick people who might need it to live? Let's discuss the possible pros and cons below.
I think this will be a welcome development if it is passed as a law because obviously, it will go a long way in saving lots of lives, especially all these end-stage organs like the heart, the kidney, the liver, etc. It will really help the people that need those transplants to be saved. Then again, it will also reduce the waiting time; like people who need heart surgery, they are always in queue. There are lists of people waiting if there's any available organ, and sometimes they wait and even die in the process of waiting. Imagine if this implementation comes up; it will drastically reduce the waiting period of some patients and will translate to saving a lot of lives that would definitely have died as a result of a lack of organs and also the cost of acquisition.
Another good side of this is that the cost of surgery will be reduced. Those organs to be transplanted will now be readily available; you know, before, it's difficult to get, and also, scarcity increases the cost of the organ. So if these organs are easily available through this initiative, it will be like a blood bank where they keep blood waiting for transfusion.
If you notice, there are a lot of kidney issues around. It's growing every day that it is terrible. People spend a lot of money doing dialysis. Even people that need one kidney to live pass through a lot of stress financially, physically, and emotionally, and if this is implemented, it would definitely give such people great relief for a long time.
Let's look at the negative or long-term effect of this policy...
As much as most people will embrace this idea of organ donation from the recently deceased to the patients who need it to live, there may be a cultural barrier to this policy. You know some people in their culture bury people whole and don't remove any vital organs. So there may be resistance to that part, and if you force it, there may be a crisis. There may also be religious constraints to this. For instance, Jehovah witnesses people; they do not donate blood. In fact, some religious beliefs may not agree to such a policy, and all these things might start creating chaos and war in the country.
Secondly, there may likely be abuse of those organs. When you make it a policy, people can abuse it; it might be doctors or anybody that has access to the organ. It might become a kind of business that is legalized, and people might start harvesting human organs anyhow.
In summary, I believe that the pros outweigh the cons, but then I also believe that when such a thing is going to happen, there will be a lot of laws that are going to guide the process so that people will not abuse it and it will not cause problems. And yes, it's something I can follow; it's something I can key in; it's something I believe will really help people. Even if it's not me directly, it can help other people that might need it and live. However, it's better if not made compulsory for the masses.
This is my take on this topic.
Images were taken from canva