Kidney for Sale

Organ transplant is a very common medical practice when a person has an organ that isn’t functioning correctly. Everyday 79 people receive a transplant that extends their lifespain, but 22 die on the waiting list because of the shortage of organs. The amount of time it took me to visit this website another person was added to a waitlist for an organ. This problem is mostly occurring with kidneys, not to take away from other organs because all types of donors are needed.

A kidney transplant replaces a perfectly healthy kidney and gives it to someone with a failing kidney. People with end stage renal disease and congenital defects of the kidney usually require a kidney transplant. The kidney carries out processes that are essential to life, like filtration of the blood to remove waste, releasing hormones to regulate blood pressure, and stimulation of the production of red blood cells. Without at least one kidney to perform these processes a person will die. Unfortunately not everyone is lucky enough to get a kidney. The process to being put on the waiting list requires an extensive amount of testing to make sure you are fit. Usually social and psychological tests are run. During waiting time, an estimated one third of patients will die on dialysis. Dialysis puts limitations on the persons life, life traveling to go see family. So even though it is keeping them alive it takes away from what we would call normal activities.

The process for kidney transplant is generally routine. This is not the complicated part, getting the donor kidney is what is causing such a problem. The amount of people that are kindly willing to remove their kidney is very slim. So usually patients in need of a kidney are in and out of hospitals, constantly being monitored and that is how their life is spent. There is really no solution to fix this problem

Last year 4000 people died waiting for a kidney and 3600 people were taken off the waiting list because they became too sick for a transplant. Clearly we do not have enough people willing to donate their kidneys for someone else to have good health, but that would change if they were paid. People in need of transplants live a controlled life while on dialysis, and have no idea if they’ll ever get a kidney. They sit around and basically wait for an organ donor to die in hope they’ll receive that kidney. If donors were paid by insurance companies for their kidney and the insurance companies would gladly do this because of the expenses of dialysis. Extensive measures would be needed to test the donor to see if they were right for donation. This idea could potentially end the shortage of kidneys.

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2 thoughts on “Kidney for Sale

  1. Nancy Hilary Berman

    This subject hits very home to me. Three years ago, almost to the day, my uncle tragically passed away at the age of 45 from kidney failure. For 5 years, he struggled with kidney disease, and dreaded having to do dialysis. Since he lived in Atlanta, it made it very hard for him to come visit the rest of our family in New Jersey. His trips would have to be planned months in advance, so he would have enough time to ship dialysis equipment to our house. He died waiting for a transplant, because of the shortage of organs. No one in our family was a match, and I always wished I was older so I could donate. I am fond of having “organ donor” written on drivers licenses, because God forbid someone was killed in an accident, it makes me happy knowing that someone who is dying could have those organs, which could save their life. Overall, dialysis did not save my Uncle’s life, but it sure did preserve it until it was his time to go.

  2. Mia Rose Del Nunzio

    This article was very interesting and I would have never known that there was a shortage in Kidney donation if it wasn’t for reading this. It is unfortunate that those who need a new kidney do not have the ability to receive it. The kidney’s have a very important function in our bodies and I find the human body very interesting, so thank you for sharing!!
    Here is a link describing the many functions our kidney’s are responsible for: http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-topics/Anatomy/kidneys-how-they-work/Pages/anatomy.aspx

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