About a month ago, Selena Gomez and her roommate, Francia Raisa, were featured on talk shows and news programs throughout the country. The renowned pop star shocked fans worldwide with the news that she had recently undergone a kidney transplant. The purpose of this surgery was to assist her in the battle with Lupus that she revealed to fans she had been fighting for several years. This disease, which causes the body’s immune system to attack its own cells, caused her kidneys to begin failing over the summer. Her doctors informed her that this failure would cause her to have to receive a new kidney. As the situation became desperate, Selena realized her disorder could quickly become fatal, and she informed her roommate of the urgent situation.
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Under this system, when patients are diagnosed with failing kidneys, they commonly rely on relatives to donate a kidney and keep them alive. This reliance puts family members under copious amounts of pressure, because they often feel as if they must undergo an operation, take time off of work, and go through a slow recovery in order to avoid feelings of guilt. When hearing that a relative or close friend is in need of a transplant, family members may offer to get tested to see if they are a match, although they “... might not want to donate, but they feel obligated, lest their relatives die or deteriorate on dialysis” (Satel 226-227). However, if this law was changed, patients would be able to purchase a kidney from a complete stranger, and their loved ones would not feel pressured into making decisions they are uncomfortable with. Ultimately, a market for kidneys would not only help the patient, but would also benefit his or her family and friends as …show more content…
However, this overwhelming gratitude can easily transform into feeling indebted to the donor. Because the law prohibits payment for organs, little can be done to relinquish these feelings. “In their 1992 book, Spare Parts: Organ Replacement in American Society, the authors write, ‘The giver, the receiver, and their families, may find themselves locked in a creditor-debtor vise that binds them one to another in a mutually fettering way’” (Satel 227). While nothing can legally prevent the sense of obligation that comes from this exchange, a market for kidneys would result in mutual
Under this system, when patients are diagnosed with failing kidneys, they commonly rely on relatives to donate a kidney and keep them alive. This reliance puts family members under copious amounts of pressure, because they often feel as if they must undergo an operation, take time off of work, and go through a slow recovery in order to avoid feelings of guilt. When hearing that a relative or close friend is in need of a transplant, family members may offer to get tested to see if they are a match, although they “... might not want to donate, but they feel obligated, lest their relatives die or deteriorate on dialysis” (Satel 226-227). However, if this law was changed, patients would be able to purchase a kidney from a complete stranger, and their loved ones would not feel pressured into making decisions they are uncomfortable with. Ultimately, a market for kidneys would not only help the patient, but would also benefit his or her family and friends as …show more content…
However, this overwhelming gratitude can easily transform into feeling indebted to the donor. Because the law prohibits payment for organs, little can be done to relinquish these feelings. “In their 1992 book, Spare Parts: Organ Replacement in American Society, the authors write, ‘The giver, the receiver, and their families, may find themselves locked in a creditor-debtor vise that binds them one to another in a mutually fettering way’” (Satel 227). While nothing can legally prevent the sense of obligation that comes from this exchange, a market for kidneys would result in mutual