The Kidney Shortage Problem

1 Introduction In 1954, the first organ transplant in the United States succeeded. (Clemmons, 2009) Today, organ transplantation technology is very advanced and surgery is done every day around the world. In the current system, the United States firmly prohibits the sale of organs. (Cremons, 2009) However, in the past 10 years, the US donor wait list has doubled and the average kidney wait time has increased. (Clemmons, 2009) In 2007, more than 70,000 patients were waiting for a kidney waiting list, of which nearly 4,500 died during the waiting period.

The shortage of transplanted organs is a problem always present all over the world: the demand of organs is considerably higher than supply. Please consider the following statistics. At the beginning of 2016, 100,791 people in the US were waiting for kidney transplants to save their lives. However, in 2014 there were only 17,107 kidney transplants. In that year, 4,761 Americans died while waiting for kidney transplantation. Because they can not get organs at home, patients in wealthy countries may choose to travel to developing countries where they can purchase and transplant organs. In developing countries, organ brokers are trying to gain economic benefits and a better future, attracting poor, uneducated individuals to sell their kidneys. Economic demand has driven most organ sellers, but as in the case of Pakistan above, actual enforcement measures are sometimes used. This type of organ transplant across borders is known as "transplant tourism".

Organ traffickers shut out people by collecting their kidneys. This is the politics behind organ trade.

Benjamin E. Hippen wrote a paper titled "Organic Sales and Ethical Dilemmas: Lessons from Iran's Live Kidney Supplier Program". He argues that the domestic organ transplant law promulgated in 1984 and prohibiting the sale of organs should be abolished. The advantage of transplantation is almost controversial compared to kidney dialysis. It is amazing to compare the figures of both life expectancies. Men between 40 and 45 years old can undergo dialysis for about 8 years and if he is about to receive a transplant he can expect to live more than 20 years. Women who begin dialysis between the ages of 55 and 59 will survive for about five years. But they can survive for more than 16 years in transplant surgery and someone's life will be remarkably improved when they are not dependent on dialysis treatment

Organs that can be used for lifeboat transplantation are lacking worldwide. For example, in the UK, NHS kidney transplantation is expected to take an average of 944 days, or more than two and a half years. Liver, lung, and other organs are also missing. Estimated lack of transplant tissue is the leading cause of death in the United States. Transplantation by organ or artificial tissue can prevent or delay about 900,000 death annually or about one third of all deaths in the United States. In short, the demand is infinite.