Many individuals need a suitable organ donation as they have suffered from and organ failure disease, Australia currently has an opt-in organ donation system. At any one time, there are 1,700 people waiting for a suitable organ. These individuals wait, on average for four years for a suitable organ to be donated. 90% of Australians support organ donation, yet only 56% are registered organ donors. To allow an individual to die of a natural death and allow additional individuals to die, who could potentially
An organ transplant is a surgical procedure to replace a failing or diseased organ with a new, healthier organ from a donor; there are two types of organ transplantation, a cadaveric or living tissue graft. Organs such as the heart, kidney, liver, small bowel, pancreas, corneas, heart valves, bones, skin, bone marrow or lungs can be used, the organs in highs demand are the kidney, heart and liver . These organs can come from deceased donors or living donors. Australia is currently one of the world leaders in organ donation as less than 1% of all organ receivers have died in hospital.
Organ donation in Australia is currently voluntary. Occasionally, after the organ has been transplanted, the immune may attack the new organ; this is called organ rejection, and, if not treated quickly, could prove fatal to the organ recipient. The immune system responds in this way as it’s first priority is to protect you from something that is potentially dangerous. Sometimes these dangerous substances have a protein called an antigen coating their surfaces and, when the antigens enter the body, the immune system recognises these proteins and recognises that they are foreign and attacks them.
There are three types of organ rejection; the worst is a hyper acute rejection which can occur a few minutes after the transplants when the antigens are completely unmatched. The organ must be removed straight away so that the recipient does not die. This type of rejection usually occurs when there are mistakes when the recipient is given the wrong type of blood. The second and not as harmful is an acute rejection which can occur anytime from the first week of the transplant to 3 months afterward.
All recipients have some amount of acute rejection (unless the recipient is an identical twin to the donor as the organ is almost never rejected). Chronic rejection, the final and least deadly form of rejection takes place over many years; it is the result of the body’s constant immune response against the new organ, slowly damaging it. To try and find a way to work their way around rejection or supress it, using medicine or a blood transfusion. The goal of the medicine is to prevent the immune system from attacking the newly transplanted organ.
There are some exceptions, for example, transplants from one identical twin to another are almost never rejected. The demand for organ transplants has rapidly increased worldwide during the past ten years die to the increased amounts of vital organ failures and the rising success rate and greater improvements in post-transplant outcomes. However, the unavailability of adequate organs available for transplant to meet the needs of thousands of people has resulted in a major organ shortage crisis.
As a result there has been a major increase in the number of patients on transplant waiting lists as well as in the number of patients dying while on the waiting list. Each day, an average of 79 people receives organ transplants. However, an average of 22 people dies each day waiting for transplants that can’t take place because of the shortage of donated organs. Almost anyone can donate organs, the governing factor on whether a person can donate an organ or not is about where and how a donor dies and the condition of their organs and tissues.
Age and medical history is taken into account but in most cases, age doesn’t matter. Many major religions also support organ transplantation such as Amish, The Assembly of God, Buddhism, Catholics, Christians, Episcopal, Greek Orthodox, Hindus, Islam, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Judaism and The Lutheran Church. Globally, organ donation rates are measured in donors per million of population (DPMP) as this takes into account changes in population over time. Leading Performance is 35. 7 DPMP, held by Spain (as seen in figure 1). By the third quarter of 2015 Australia was performing at 16. 0 DPMP, only 45% of world leading practice.
Currently, Australia is ranked 22nd in the world, meaning that over the last year, Australia has fallen two places. Consent for organ donation was more likely to be obtained from white patients (77%), the next highest race were Hispanics with a consent rate of 67. 5%, “other races” had a consent rate of 59%, blacks had a consent rate of 54. 9% and Asians were the least likely to gain consent at a consent rate of 48. 1%. Different ethnic groups do have special needs when matching blood types in the organ transplant process as some blood types and human leukocyte antigen (HLA) types are more common within some ethnic groups.
Some ethnic groups are also more likely to develop medical conditions that require organ donations. “On average, patients from the Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities will wait a year longer for a kidney transplant than a white patient, due to the lack of suitable organs. Blood and tissue types need to match for a successful transplant and organs from people from the same ethnic background are more likely to be a close match. ” (Yes I Donate Organ Donation, n. d. ) An organ donation register is a service that allows people to record their decision about becoming an organ and tissue donor for transplantation after death.
A donor register ensures that a person’s donation decision can be verified and in the event of a person’s death, information about their decision can be provided to the family of the deceased. One person donating their organs can save up to seven lives, making the donor a true hero to the recipient and their family. This action can have major repercussions as it could convince more people to do the same. Advances in medical science also means that the number of people whose lives could be saves by a transplant are rising more rapidly that the number of willing donors.
The current opt-in system is also currently condemning many people, many of whom are children to an unnecessary death simply because of the shortage of willing donors even though bodies are buried or cremated with organs that could have been used to save lives. Also, objections to compulsory organ donation are usually down to the sentimental value of the person, a dead body is no longer a sentient being; it’s an inanimate object incapable of feelings. Also, complications during and after surgery may cause the organ recipient to suffer through large amounts of pain.
For example, the recipient may experience excessive bleeding, clotting of blood, and/or infection on the site on which the surgery is conducted. Organ donation should be made compulsory in Australia as it gives the recipient a second chance at life. Australia’s donation rates do not meet the demand for organs required by un-well citizens. It is a fact that at any one time, 1,700 people are on the organ donation transplant waiting list and on average; these individuals can be waiting for as long as four years for a suitable organ to be donated.
Though 90% of Australians support organ donation, only 56% are registered donors. The top 6 religions that are the most prevalent throughout society include Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and non-religious accounting for more than 90% of the world 7billion population are in favour of and promote organ donation. There are very few individuals who religiously are forbidden to donate organs and when this number is further restricted to just Australia. Currently, the compulsory or ‘opt-out’ schemes have been very successful in Austria, Belgium and Spain and these countries have the highest donation rates.
Compulsory organ donation has the chance to alter the affliction of death and gives to opportunity to save lives, organ donation should be made compulsory in Australia. Organ has been hailed as one of the greatest achievements of modern surgery. There are however many ethical dilemmas and controversies associated with the procedure, many questions included: Who gets priority? Will money, social status or political connections influence this decision? Will priority be based on the severity of a person’s illness, age or other factors?
Many countries, such as Malaysia have now put into place a set of guidelines to solve the problems to ensure that all Transplant Specialists adhere to its set of guidelines. Transplants are also very expensive as it includes the surgical process and the continuing rehabilitation process. This could mean that a wealthier person would get a new organ and a poor person could be refused. There are also a lot of misconceptions that come with organ transplants, such as the misconception that the body of the donor would be mutilated and treated badly.
This is not so as the organs are removed in a routine operation, organ donation does not disfigure the body in any way and would not affect the way it would look in a casket and normal funeral arrangements would still be possible. The proposed changes to the opt-in organ donation system basically implies that deceased humans belong to the State as soon as the donor is dead, offending some people. The removal of organs from a person who had not expressed the wish to have their organs removed to their family could be distressing for them.
Also, for some religions, the donation of organs is considered as bodily harm or could impact their way into their religion’s ‘heaven’, for example, gypsies believe that for the first year after death, the soul retraces it’s steps. All parts of the body must remain intact because the soul maintains a physical shape. Organ donation in Australia should be compulsory, as at any one time, there are 1,700 people waiting for a new chance at life. A compulsory or ‘opt-out’ system would greatly increase the numbers of new, usable organs to save lives.
Some people need to wait for up to 4 years for a suitable organ. Australia’s current ‘opt-in’ system simply can’t meet the needs of the thousands of people on the waiting list. It seems illogical to allow people to die when an individual could potentially be saved by none other than organs that are fated to perish in the ground or be cremated along with their body. With a population full of world class surgeons, compulsory organ donation should be a viable option as it would allow the affliction of death to be transformed into a new lease on life.
