Andrew Barlow
English 2010
Ron Christiansen
October 6th 2009
Organs – On Demand
ORGAN TRANSPLANTS
In the year 2008 over 6,200 people died while on the waiting list for organs. During the
same time there were almost
2008 Organ Transplants in the US
28,000 organ donations. For the
first time the organ donor list
exceeded 100,000 during 2008.
18000
16000
14000
12000
10000
Over 77% of the transplants
8000
6000
completed in 2008 were from
4000
2000
deceased donors. Heart, Lung,
0
Kidney
Liver
Heart
Intestine, and Pancreas
transplants cannot come from a
Living Donors
Lung
Kidney Pancreas Intestine Heart and
and
Lung
Pancreas
Deceased Donors
living donor. About 4% of liver transplants come from living donors. Kidney transplants – the
most common type of transplant – have the highest percentage of living donors at about 36%
(New York Organ Donor Network, Inc.).
WHAT CAN SOLVE THE PROBLEM?
Organ transplantation can cost well over a Million dollars when all costs are considered
(United Network for Organ Sharing). With the cost of transplant so high, and the supply so low,
* Graph created with data from New York Organ Donor Network, Inc.
there seems to be an ever widening chasm preventing transplants for those who need it. As
the population increases, this problem will only get worse. The only solution is to increase
organ supply. The question is: how? One method is to appeal to people that would not donate
organs, and persuade them to donate. Another method would be to make the organs needed,
increasing the supply. This solution is not without its own issues. Cloning the organs would be
one possibly way to increase the supply. However, cloning organs opens a Pandora’s Box of
ethical and moral issues. Cloning already has a stigma, and many preconceived notions, such as
cloning being murder: killing embryos that would develop into humans. People are driven by
fear, fear of killing innocent life. Fear can cause people to change their mind about issues that
were already decided to them. This is one reason relying on human donors to solve the issue is
problematic.
WHY IS CLONING THE SOLUTION?
Most of the debate on organ shortage focuses on increasing the organ supply through
increasing donation. People may focus on increasing awareness of the issue, relying on
peoples’ sense of guilt or obligation to become donors. Others may say that offering money for
organs is the solution. Both of these solutions show promise, and do offer to solve our
problem, however, they are not best solution. Cloning is a better solution because it can be
manipulated easier. The public’s desire to donate is not concrete, it will always fluctuate. Fear
can cause the surge of donors to plummet. Cloning is a more reliable solution, once perfected
the supply of organs created would be constant. If the demand goes up, you could just grow
more organs, demand can dictate supply.
WHAT CAN CLONING DO?
Cloning organs could provide a way to increase the organ supply, in a way that can be
controlled. A cloned organ should not be rejected by the host. Cloning organs is still a scientific
process under a lot of scrutiny, and study. Whether or not cloning the organ could shorten the
waiting period for a transplant recipient is still unknown. What is known is that it’s possible.
There are multiple ways of using cloning to obtain organs. It would be possible to clone the
entire individual, and extract the organs. It is possible to insert the directions for building a
human organ into other animals. Because of their similarities to humans, pigs are often used
for medical research. One similarity is in the insulin both humans and pigs use. The insulin from
a pig can be used in humans. Pig embryos can be cloned, and modified to build a human organ
for transplant. By shifting the creation of the organ into a pig a lot of the debate can be
brought out of the issue. We eat pigs, so using a pig to build organs is not nearly as
controversial as creating a human life.
WHY CLONE?
As with any new science cost is a concern. Medical insurance pays for organ transplant,
partially. Many people believe that medical insurance carriers would not cover organ cloning.
This is a vicious circle, no one can afford to get an organ cloned, so it is unproven, so it cannot
be covered, so no one gets it done. Organ cloning has not been proven successful; cloning itself
is less than 10% successful. Cloning for organ transplant has been tested in cows. In an article
published by the US Department of Energy they gave the outcome of that trial: “In the three
months of observation following the transplant, no sign of immune rejection was observed in
the transplant recipient.” Cloning organs can have great potential; a cloned organ should not
be rejected by the host, increasing the success rate (U.S. Department of Energy, Office of
Science). As the fear of rejection decreases the hope for a solution increases.
WHAT DO PEOPLE “KNOW” ABOUT CLONING?
One factor in the research is public opinion. The public is largely unaware of cloning,
how it’s done, and what benefits can be wrought. When people don’t understand something
they fear it. One example of this fear is the 2005 movie The Island. In this movie people
purchase “Insurance Policies” for possible organ failure. They are lead to believe a company
has taken their DNA, and used it to replicate their internal organs. In the movie this proves to
be impossible, unless the organs are connected to a living person. This means the entire
individual must being cloned, and kept alive. These clones live in a secluded underground
facility. They believe there has been a global catastrophe, and almost everyone is dead. They
have been “rescued” to this facility, with little memory of life before. But, there is an Island, a
wondrous place, an oasis, with only so much room. The survivors hold a lottery to see who
“wins” a trip to this Island. “Winning” the lottery means the “policy holder” needs one of the
clones’ organs. They are taken away, and their organs are harvested, whatever remains is
discarded, a hollow shell. The movie has many graphic scenes of this harvest; one of these
scenes depicts the clone
waking up mid surgery
and tries to escape. The
movie ultimately ends
with a battle between
Scene from The Island (2005)
http://www2.nationalreview.com/dest/2009/08/12/d4c15a13fa0712a189cb0bc1ef8b17a2.jpg
clone and original, with the clones escaping into the real world. This movie plays on people fear
of cloning. It plays on the slippery slope, if we clone organs where will it end? People don’t
trust science to remain scientific. In the movie there is a lot of money to be made with these
clones. If money can be made in the process, it’s likely the process will become corrupt. The
world is full of too many things that started to the benefit of people, but ended up being
commercialized to the point of hindrance. People fear being taken advantage of in the pursuit
of the all mighty dollar, fear is a powerful motivator, but also a strong impediment.
IS CLONING REALLY PLAUSIBLE?
Right now research is being completed for organ cloning, and regeneration. It is will in
the very early stages, and some believe it is 20+ years away from being viable. More research is
required to perfect the process of cloning organs. Elizabeth Svoboda reported that mini livers
have already been grown, “[the livers] aren't large enough to do a full body's worth of work”.
They believe that fully functional livers
are 15-25 years away. These livers
were produced using stem cells from
umbilical cord blood. Anthony Atala
was able to construct an artificial
bladder in 2006. He used a polymer
Artificial Bladder: Photo by John Carnett
http://www.iconocast.com/new_images/125296245650.jpg
framework to let the cells grow on.
The framework was built to the size and shape needed, and the cells grew on the framework to
complete the organ. In 2002 he was able to successfully create a kidney for use in a cow. This
kidney was not perfect, it was inefficient, but it functioned, and it shows the potential for this
research (Svoboda). This field is showing amazing advancements, every year has new and
exciting discoveries. If we continue to search and discover the awesome power of cloning there
may one day be an end to dying on the waiting list.
THE FUTURE…
If we look 50 years into the future what will we see? Will we see hospitals with stock
rooms of organs ready to be transplanted? Will organ transplantation become so routine it’s an
outpatient procedure? Will we see organ donation that is unable to keep up with the demand,
to the point that needing a new organ is a death sentence? These questions cannot be
answered now, but the groundwork must be put in place now to see a brighter future. With
the proper research and study organ cloning can solve a lot of problems for the human race.
We must do something now to curb the transplant shortage or it will be our children’s children
that pay the ultimate price.
Works Cited
New York Organ Donor Network, Inc. Organ & Tissue Donation - Data. 2009. 4 October 2009
<http://www.donatelifeny.org/organ/2008_unitedstates_6.html>.
—. Organ & Tissue Donation - Data. 2009. 4 October 2009
<http://www.donatelifeny.org/organ/2008_unitedstates_4.html>.
—. Organ & Tissue Donation - Statistics. 1 May 2009. 4 October 2009
<http://www.donatelifeny.org/organ/o_waitinglist.html>.
Reinberg, Steven. Scientists Grow Mouse Teeth From Single Cells. 19 February 2007. 4 October 2009
<http://health.msn.com/health-topics/oral-care/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100156387>.
Svoboda, Elizabeth. The Latest Man-Made Organs. 16 September 2008. 10 October 2009
<http://www.iconocast.com/00013/W9/News5.htm>.
U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science. Cloning Fact Sheet. 11 May 2009. 4 October 2009
<http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/cloning.shtml>.
United Network for Organ Sharing. Transplant Living: Organ Donation and Transplantation Information
for Patients. 2009. 4 October 2009
<http://www.transplantliving.org/beforethetransplant/finance/costs.aspx>.