summaries

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Article 1: Who Owns Your Body
The article by Kerry Howley, “Who owns your body,” published on March 2007, raises the alarm on how body parts from the corpses are used for medical purposes yet some of the donors are not made aware of the practices, and neither the donors nor their families are not financially rewarded. This is contrary to the fact that though the films involved in the receivership of the donated organs are non-profit entities, the films, including the doctors, nurses and hospitals have been recording huge sums of revenues from selling the processed body parts. The article raises a question of whether in the time of our death, we still own bodies or they become a just a commodity? With the rise in technology, the demand for the body parts has risen and so does the illegality in obtaining the remains of our body for medical purposes.
Article 2: Donors Retain No Rights to Donated Tissue
The article by Kristine, “Donors Retain No Rights to Donated Tissue” argues that the boundaries of ownership and any other benefit obtained from the donated part are set just after the donation is made. It continues to explain that the law has not yet established any specific ownership rights in the donated body parts. The donor does not have any legal claim of the financial benefits henceforth accrued from the post processes. In this regard, several cases have been filed relating to the ownership of the cells and tissues.

However, most of the cases have been disputed, and the jury culminates in the termination of the ownership of the donated parts just immediately the parts leave the body of the donor. The article provides an account of such cases and how they were deliberated.
Article 3: The Trouble with Organ Trafficking
Arthur Caplan, in his article “The Trouble with Organ Trafficking,” claims that the act of legalizing organ trafficking will not, by any mean, be the answer. However, he maintains that its illegality will remain to be an ethical solution. Being a director of the Joint Council of Europe/United Nations, he researched organ trafficking, and from there he was able to draw compelling reasons as to why legalizing and creating a market for this field will only escalate the long undulating problems that have previously existed. His main argument is that by creating a market for the organs, vulnerable people will be victimized into unwillingly selling their organs for them to raise quick cash. The market is becoming difficult to manage and to make human organs a commodity will be an ethical issue representing the moral depravity of how humans have grown. He, therefore, concludes that the only option left is to illegalize human organ trafficking.
Article 4: Why We Need a Market for Human Organs
The article by Sally Satel, “Why We Need a Market for Human Organs” convinces the government to sanction market for selling human organs. Sally, an M.D and a resident scholar at AEI, says that creating a legal market for organs like kidney will minimize the illegal activities associated with the supply of such organs which have high demands though lack in the market. She says that this should be done in a very calculated move to ensure the less fortunate people do not fall victims to this market. This can be done by keenly educating donors and heightening the consequences to the donor in case some of the demands of trade have not been met. By legalizing the sale of organs to the market, the donor will benefit financially from the sales, and the lives of many recipients will be saved in the process. The act will also create a pool of legally acquired organs thus creating a low demand for the illegal activities associated with organ trafficking. This will significantly assist in downplaying the vice.
Article 5: The Gendered Language of Gamete Donation
Caroline Rubin in her article, “The gendered language of gamete donation” inspects the discourse that donors of gamete undergo before they donate. She tries to elaborate how gamete donation relates to the whole gender ideology surrounding the gamete donation. She tells us that both male and female undergo vigorous scrutiny based on many aspects to determine if they are worthy donors. The tests are different for both men and women. These tests replicate the gender role observed in the family vicinity. Procedurally, male donation for the sperms is a simple task as compared to females who at times have to go through surgery to obtain the egg. This is quite painful. The article also brings to our attention the ethical concerns revolving around the gamete donation for both males and females.
Summary
Organ donation is a delicate topic that draws widespread attention from many parties in various spheres of medical professions and many others who are involved. The primary intention of organ donation is to save human life. To the recipient, many of the procedure undertaken in this respect have fruitful. However, the whole scene of organ donation has been intertwined with many illegal and ethical irresponsibility thus questioning the genuineness involved with this procedure and bringing mistrust to the people involved. Demand for human organs is high, but the supply of the organs has overtime proved to be lagging behind. Regarding this, various organizations get involved in illegal dealings to supply these organs even with no consent from the donor. They end up stealing the corpse and removing important parts of human body for resale. The fact that the government has illegalized the sale of human organs drives some of this activities deep underground making them endanger the human lives. This is a blemish on the survivability of the human race. In the course of this activities, less fortunate people become vulnerable to donate their organs on the promise of quick cash. To the dismay of many, the donors end up dead, and their families are less likely to be compensated for the donation. In the article by Sally Satel, “Why We Need a Market for Human Organs,” I concur with her that the government needs to create a pool of market where medical practitioners will be able to acquire human organs using a legal means (Satel 311). However, any other method apart from the one provided should call for severe consequences to the organization caught complicit in the offense. This can involve even the closure of the institution. Other processes as outlined in the article will further enhance the capability of the government to ensure control of human organ donation in the market.
Work Cited
Satel, Sally. “Why we need a market for human organs.” Wall Street Journal (2008): A11.
List of Articles
Caplan, Arthur. “The Trouble with Organ Trafficking.” (2009).
Howley, Kerry. “Who Owns Your Body Parts?.” Reason Magazine (2007).
Rubin, Caroline. “The Gendered Language of Gamete’Donation’.” (2008).
Satel, Sally. “Why we need a market for human organs.” Wall Street Journal (2008): A11.
Schleiter, Kristin E. “Donors, retain no rights to donated tissue.” Virtual Mentor 11.8 (2009)