Topic: Organ Donation
An organ donation is the removal of the human body from a living donor or a person who has recently died for the purpose of transplanting. Then a procedure similar to surgery takes place, where organs and tissues are removed. Individuals of all ages may become organ donors. The laws in different countries allow donors accept or decline a donation or give this choice to their relatives. In the U.S the law regulation of organ is left to states within the limitations the Transplant Act, which requires the donor to make a confirmatory statement during his/her lifetime that she or he has agreed to become a donor. In the United Kingdom organ donation is voluntary. The ones who are willing to donate their organs after death can use the national database. However the ethical question was always there since the mid-1970s. There are many teleological ethical, religious, political arguments that arise within that subject.

Article 1: Ukraine

Interior Ministry: Ukrainian medics have nothing to do with organs trade
http://eng.for-ua.com/news/2007/07/24/152237.html

The article informs of an incident that was revealed by the Israeli police through the international network that organized illegal donor organs transplantation in a private hospital in Kiev. The two criminal who were found were arrested in the Tel Aviv airport and they were shortly followed by the other nine people who were involved in the organ transplantation field. The police tracked the criminals trough an announcement published in a Russian press, that was persuading the people to become a kidney donor for a generous reward. After the donors were medically examined, they were taken to a private hospital in Kiev, where their renal transplantations were carried out. As the article states every kidney was sold for 150,000 dollars.

Article 2: Russia

Survival of the Fittest- turning kidneys into cash.
http://rt.com/Top_News/2009-03-20/Survival_of_the_fittest___turning_kidneys_into_cash.html?fullstory

The article discusses a social network website that invites people to buy and sell their kidneys online. The websites motto states “Your kidneys are our cares”. The website also advises that the best way to survive the world economic crisis is to sell your kidney. The websites homepage suggests that while the crisis is overtaking the planet it is very substantial to sell your kidney and receive a necessary amount of money for paying fees, credit and a lot more. The statistics show that the websites membership has 2,456 users registered. Yet, the article states that the website has little proof of being authentic and it seems a lot like a cynical joke. The website also started a promotional campaign in order to encourage people to invite their friends to join in, under a slogan “Invite your friend and receive 20% of your friend's kidney price. Only until September 1.”As well as the websites limited feedback which has two messages posted in the section, both of the opinions after the kidney donations are positive. It also provides a section which says "You are not alone” but when you open the page a blank page appears.

Article 3: Pakistan

Organ Donation Law
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/editorial/16-organ-donation-law-hs-04

The article informs that the new law adopted by the Senate, bans surgeons who exploit poverty-stricken to buy their organs for a ridiculous amount and transplant these in desperate foreigners with an end kidney failure for serious amount of money. The president of the Transplantation society has stated that the sale of human organs sale has declined when certain measures were taken in 2007. Prior to that, Pakistan had maintained a dubious reputation for becoming a place of kidney tourism. The new law that has been passed bans such actions and organs from a living donor can take under very strict conditions. This law has proved to be very successful. Nevertheless there is a need to address the issue to the public about the decreased organ donation. As the article mentions, there is not enough public awareness.

Reflection/Analysis

In my opinion organ transplantation is an important issue around the world; especially it should be directly addressed to in poorer countries such as Pakistan. In addition organ transplantation also became a very exploitive and manipulative process, particularly with those volunteers that have little knowledge on the issue; they could easily get trapped and convinced to donate their organs for a promising amount of money. Although afterwards they might have to face some severe health difficulties and dysfunctions within their body and as a result they could easily become victims of the organ donation process. It involves many ethical questions of whether this should be allowed in poorer countries or some laws need to be passed on in order to slow down the rate at which the poorer individual are manipulated to sell their organs.
The three articles show different situations related to the issue in countries such as Russia, Ukraine and Pakistan. The Ukrainian article taken from the newspaper is a story of some Ukrainian group of criminals that organized the kidney transplantations supposedly for a great award that the volunteers could receive. The Russian article talks about an online website that calls for the individuals to become volunteers for kidney donation and have some banners demonstrating that a single kidney equals a lot of money. They also claim that an effective way of avoiding economic crisis is by selling your kidneys, but after a deeper analysis the reviewers consider it to be a suspicious joke. The article taken from a Pakistani newspaper informs about a law that was passed by the Senate, which ensures that no unnecessary and unconfirmed organ transplants will take place starting from the year of 2009.
From all the three articles I found more about organ donations in different places and the cases that have appeared concerning this issue. I think that this issue requires a further analysis and investigation from the police as well as it should be taken into consideration by the governments. It also requires more fair assessment in what cases it should be legal and in what cases the medical experts and surgeons should abstain from these measures. As well as I think that in terms of exploitation this is a serious problem with some lack of understanding from the publics side about seriousness of organ transplantation.