Kidney Transplant One World Essay

1. Rhea Singh
Organ Transplant Essay
Rhea Singh
30th March 2011

2. Rhea Singh

3. Rhea Singh
Kidney Transplant
One World Essay
A kidney removes excess fluid and waste from your blood, which means that
when your kidneys lose their filtering ability, dangerous levels of waste and fluids
accumulate in your body. What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of a
kidney transplant? How is a kidney transplant connected with ethical issues and
economical issues? These are questions that will be answered in this essay. This
essay will support the fact that a kidney transplant may cause a few ethical issues,
but if it saves a persons life, then those ethical issues shouldn’t cause too much
attention to themselves.
A kidney removes waste and water from the blood, and it also balances the
chemicals in your body and released hormones. They help control blood pressure
and produce red blood cells and they produce vitamin D, which keeps the bones
strong and healthy. Someone might need a kidney transplant because of a kidney
failure. A kidney failure can cause problems like diabetes, inflammation,
uncontrolled high blood
pressure, and scarring of the tiny
filter within your kidneys. This
then means someone needs a
kidney transplant. Figure 1
Figure 1: One of the kidneys has to be removed if it is diseased.

4. Rhea Singh
shows that once you have diseased in your kidney, it has to be removed, leaving one
kidney behind. If a living donor is not available, then your name is placed on a
kidney transplant waiting list to receive a kidney from a deceased donor. The wait
could be a year or more, but it would definitely be worth it.
There are many benefits to having a kidney transplant. Like people get
freedom from dialysis, which means that the amount of time they would have spent
on dialysis, they can go out and do something else. Also, there are fewer, if any, fluid
and diet restrictions that need to be followed. Your energy level increases, which
also means that you can spend this time with your family, do your hobbies, etc. and
you tend to feel better physically too. Another benefit is that this treats your kidney
failure and gives you back your healthy. Therefore a kidney transplant is providing
you with a better quality of life.
Like everything else in this world, a kidney transplant may have its benefits,
but there are quite some disadvantages too. For example, you have to take
medicines regularly for the kidney, and you’ll need to make many frequent visits
with your physician. Anti‐rejection drugs may also cause problems for you, which
would mean you would have to be hospitalized. Side effects of the medicines are
also possible and your body might reject the kidney or develop an infection. Another
disadvantage is that even though you are not likely to experience any pain during
the surgery, it is quite common to experience pain and discomfort right after the
procedure. Sometimes to minimize the pain, painkillers are provided right after the

5. Rhea Singh
kidney has been transplanted. These are just a few disadvantages for having a
kidney transplant, and people should keep this in mind when thinking about getting
a kidney transplant.
A kidney transplant can cause many economical problems for a person. This
is because the cost of a kidney transplant can be financially troubling for one. The
poorer families who may not have insurance cannot afford all this. Also, a lot of
money is put into a kidney transplant and there is a possibility of it not succeeding.
All the equipment, surgeons, etc. is there and ready to be used, but the question is
should people still believe in investing their money for a kidney that might be
rejected by their body?
There is plenty of evidence that supports why a kidney transplant may cause
economical problems. First of, the cost of a kidney transplant goes from
approximately $100,000 to $400,000. This kind of money is not affordable for
everyone in the world. Dialysis costs the health‐care system approximately $60,000
per patient each year; transplantation has a one‐time cost of $23,000 plus an annual
cost of $6,000 for medicine. The development and use of technology related to
transplants is expensive. Estimates of the cost of transplant procedures, without
many complications would possibly range from $20,000 to $30,000 for just one
kidney (Goddard, June 9, 2010). The question is weather these huge funds should be
spent on transplants that would benefit only a small minority of patients or be

6. Rhea Singh
assigned to common health problems (family welfare, communicable and non‐
communicable diseases, preventive medicines, maternal and child health, etc.).
A kidney transplant is also a main subject when concerning ethical issues.
Damaging one living person to benefit another person is not very ethical, hence
causing some major issues, and donating your kidney has the potential to increasing
health risks in that person. The main problem causing ethical concern is about the
shortage of transplanted organs. Various dilemmas are related to the concept of
brain death and how the authorization is obtained. A transplant between living
people always raises the question of whether it can ever be ethical to damage one
living person to benefit another persons.
There is also some evidence that supports why
a kidney transplant is an ethical issue. Biologically
related donors have the most common ethical issues
of assuring the voluntary nature following the full
knowledge of the potential health risks and negative
psychological consequences. Sometimes children are
Figure 2: Executed prisoners in China the only possible donors for their parents/siblings.
have their organs taken away from
them
This child might not be old enough to understand the
complication of donating and may feel pressured by their parents. Therefore, using
children, as a donor is a special circumstance, needs guidance, counseling, and an
ethics committee approval (Fost, 1977). One of the most unethical issues is using a

7. Rhea Singh
kidney from executed prisoners (see figure 2). In China, approximately 4 to 6
thousand kidneys out of 10,000 kidneys have been from executed prisoners. In
1984, China made a law, which legalized using organs from executed prisoners, but
this would only happen if one claimed the body, the prisoner volunteers or the
family agrees (Tilney, 2003). Usually, permission is rarely obtained and neither
family nor prisoner is informed of the donation. Hence all those are causing many
ethical issues.
A kidney transplant are beneficial to people, but they also have there
disadvantages. Beneficial because your energy level increase, you feel better
physically and it provides you with a better quality of life, which lots of time to
spare. Whereas you have to take medicines every day for the kidney, there are
chances of side effects and your body rejecting the kidney. They also cause
economical and ethical issues. Economical because the price of a kidney transplant
is quite expensive and some people cannot afford it. Ethical issues because you are
harming one living person to benefit another person. I honestly think that my topic
is very interesting. After researching about this, I was very surprised about the kind
of things people have to go for a kidney. It’s really amazing when people donate a
kidney for another person to use and I think it’s very generous of them. I think to
resolve any problems in my topic, people could start donating their organs to other
people. As in, if they die in an accident, then your organs will be donated to someone
in need. Remember, one person can save around fifteen lives.

8. Rhea Singh
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