Article 1 – Why don’t Americans donate?
At the beginning of the article, the writer reveals the problem of organ shortage. He also gives the preview of what he is going to say in the following paragraph – the causes of organ shortage, the possible solutions for organ shortage and their effectiveness and feasibility, the reasons why the organ transplantation rate is low.
The writer then shares an experience of a 4-year-old girl, Angela, who has a life-threatening kidney disease and needs a transplant. The example shows how hard it is for someone to obtain a suitable organ to create a new lease on life. With 53000 people on the waiting list, the chances for Angela getting a kidney in time were slim. The girl’s parents even placed advertisement in their hometown newspaper to ask for a suitable …show more content…
According to several authorities mentioned in the article, the success in organ transplant worsen the problem of organ shortage. Meanwhile, transplantation is the only option for certain illnesses.
There are several reasons for the low donation rate (50%). The first is people who sign donor cards fail to inform family members about their wishes prior to death. Dealing with the tragic emotional situation that loved person is dead, organ donation creates extra pressure to the dead person’s family. The second reason and third reason are about religions and mistrust to the organ-allocation process respectively.
For the solutions of the current situation, financial incentives to organ donation is one of them. It may significantly increase the supply of organs, while it may also fuel a “black market” in human organs, and a little bit unethical. Another solution is xenotransplantation – a process that transplant animal organs into humans. And the potential risk is it could unleash animal viruses on the human