Artificial Organs -Solving the Organ Transplant Crises
Economical, Legal, Social Issues
Economical Issues: What is the Charge?
Most of the American clinics charge more than $100,000. The graph on the left shows how bio-engineered trachea cost for one patient. The cost of the artificial trachea was only about $1,000. However, the charge of the clinical care costed a lot more than the organ since most of the patients were in a severe illness.
As you can see on the left:
-
Patients who are waiting for the transplant pay about $400,000 since there are a lot of people filling up the waiting list.
-
As you go on few years, patients pay way less than before which is about 4 times less and goes lower as the years goes by (I1).
Another economical issue is that only the ones who are wealthy could afford these payments, leaving majority of people who are poor unable to treat their illness. Since most the patients who want organ transplants are in a severe conditions, staying in a clinic is important. However, it takes too much time to receive a right organ donor or to create an organ that fits to the patient's requirements. As the time takes longer, the price of clinical care goes too high, leaving the poor in debt.
Legal Issues: Government Restrictions
The U.S Congress passed an act called the National Organ Transplant Act in 1984. This act established Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) which gave national registry for organ donors. Since the field of organ transplant industry is the most regulated subject, people are careful of the idea of adopting artificial organs into the system. However, the government and many people started to feel in need of using bio-engineered organs (I2).
Social Issues: Which Side is Right?
​With Artificial Organs:
-
Artificial organs can replace diseased or damaged organs, thereby, providing the ailing patient with an opportunity to lead a healthy and normal life.
-
Artificial organs can meet the huge demand of healthy donor organs. There is a huge list of patients who are in urgent need of healthy organs but are unable to find a suitable willing donor.
-
A major stumbling block in the form of organ rejection can be solved due to artificial organs. As artificial organs are created by taking the stem cells of the same person and of the same organ, the possibility of rejection has been reduced significantly.
-
The time taken to create or grow an artificial organ is lesser than waiting period for finding a suitable donor whose organ matches with the recipient's body perfectly.
​Against Artificial Organs:
-
A major concern is the possible presence of the disease in the base tissue which is used to create the organ. There is a possibility that the tissue is already infected by other diseases.
-
The entire cost of growing and transplanting an artificial organ is prohibitive, and thus, limit the scope of its application to the general public.
-
There are high chances of organ failure, and the body may even take some time to adapt to the new organ. How the body reacts to the new organ may vary from person to person (I3).