Organ donation, legal or illegal?"
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I want to specially appreciate the organizer of this contest for coming up with this brilliant topic. It's a thoughtful and sensitive topic that should be carefully discussed. I will do my best to share my view comprehensively so much so that even when a layman stumble upon this post, he or she will be able to grasp this subject easily. Let get right in guys.
Organ donation has been in practice for quite sometime now and have spanned over the years, it's still being practiced today. The ultimate goal of this practice is to save lives by extracting a part of someone's body, usually organ and then put it in the body of someone else who obviously lacks it and needs it for survival.
The extraction could be done on living being or from a deceased. Well it all depends on the essential organ needed. But all the same these two categories of being can be a donor. Every country has a procedure for this act. We would dive into it shortly as I would also be using my country as a case study.
An organ donor is someone who is giving his or her consent to donate an organ from his or her body to someone who needs it for survival. Let's take note that the term "donor" there connotes that this act is voluntarily done and there is not form of coercion attached to the act.
There is no doubt that there is a high demand for body organs all over the world but then you don't go on the street and pick a random person to say you want to extract his or her organ. That would be very wrong and such person has just exercise undue advantage over the victim and would definitely face the wrath of the law if apprehended.
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The word donor is extraction from the broad word donation which simple means freewill giving. The action carried out in the above scenario can be referred to as Organ Trafficking because it was gotten the wrong way, via force and not a voluntary or freewill act on the path of the victim. For someone who is deceased, you would need the consent of his or her relative before his or her organ can be extracted and used for someone else.
Organ donation is legal, the law sees it as an humanitarian act of saving lives and that is how it is seen in most part of the world where medicine is practiced. As long as the word donation/donor is attached to it, it's legal. However so many people hide under the word donor to do something else which makes it becomes illegal. I will mention some of the things that make organ extraction illegal below.
• Donating for money: when you donate for money, it's no longer valid in the eyes of the law. It then means you want to do it for your own selfish reasons and not because you really care about the person who needs it. In this case it has become illegal.
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• Donor who is underage: Extracting organ from an under age is illegal even when you have been granted consent by the same. The law still sees such underage fellow as someone who is not mature enough to make decisions and might have been induced into making such life defining decision. In Nigeria you must be at least 21 years of age before you can give such consent.
• Extracting organ from deceased without proper consent: Another thing that can make this act illegal is when you extract organ from a deceased without prior and proper consent from the family or relative of the deceased. It's no more news that there is high demand for these organs and so many are on the waiting list to get organs for surviving but there's no justification to extract unduly from the deceased.
• Involving in Organ trafficking: This is another act that makes organ extraction illegal. The law frowns at people who engage in organ trafficking because ultimately, the will of those involve have been bought and in most cases, trampled upon.
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The act of trafficking show a very desperate act of getting this organ by all means which is not right in the eyes of the law. In Nigeria, this offence is punishable under the law and the punishment is a seven years imprisonment and a fine of N5,000,000 which is equivalent to 18,050 Steems
• An organ donor should ensure he leads a health life after the donation because he is no more as strong as he was before the donation.
• According to the Nigeria Health act , such person is restricted from travelling far for the first 3 months, just to help him stay healthy and reduce complications.
• Such person should avoid eating out as much as possible because he can't control how they prepare their meal out there which of course might contain things not suitable for his body system but if he prepares his meal at home, he would be able to control the ingredients.
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• They are to stay away from cigarettes and herbal remedies which can complicate their health. The earlier they realized that their system is now delicate, the better for them.
• They are also advised to take their medication as described by their medical practitioner and this also include anti-rejection periodic treatment.
Organ donation is an humanitarian act of saving lives and should be seen and practiced with such mindset. Anything outside that will alter the motive behind this act. I think I've been able to do justice to this topic. And just before I finally drop my pen. I would love to invite @m-fdo @josepha @sur-riti to this contest.
Regards
@lhorgic❤️
https://x.com/lhorgic1/status/1842203394477371849