How much does your body cost?

• April 29, 2024

A transplant of human organs and tissues can save many lives and restore essential functions in circumstances in which there is no other medical alternative of comparable efficacy, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) .

Transplantation of solid organs, such as the kidneys, liver, heart or lungs, is increasingly a systematic component of health care in all countries, and is no longer an exclusive feature of health care for the elderly. high income countries.

According to a report from the WHO , transplants are cost-effective in many circumstances, especially those that are not usually so pressing.

For example, in developing countries, as in developed countries, the kidney transplant not only is it more feasible in survival rates and in a quality of life that are much higher than those obtained with other treatments for the terminal kidney failure , as the hemodialysis , but it is also much less expensive in the long term.

However, there is a serious deficiency in the culture of donation worldwide, and due to the lack of information and specific rules for the use of cadaveric organs, every year a large number of people who are candidates for a transplant die.

According to data from medicaltranscription.net and the BBC , only in the United States there are 113 thousand people on waiting lists of an organ transplant, and only a little more than 14 thousand organs were donated last year, so there are those who are willing to make or pay what is necessary to get an organ, blood or bones.

Despite the Guiding Principles on Human Organ Transplants (WHO) where emphasis is placed, among other things, on voluntary donation, non-commercialization, genetic kinship between donors and recipients, and the preference for cadavers over living donors as sources, a large percentage of organs come from the "black market".

According to the portal of medicaltranscripcion.net, it is an active market for different parts of the body, which has even priced a series of fees for each of the organs required for transplants.

The list includes the following body parts with their respective costs in US dollars:

1. Pair of eyes: $ 1,525
2. From the scalp: $ 607
3. Skull with teeth: $ 1,200
4. Shoulder: $ 500
5. Coronary artery: $ 1,525
6. Heart: $ 119,000
7. Liver: $ 157,000
8. Hand and Forearm: $ 385
9. One pint of blood: $ 337
10. Spleen: $ 508
11. Stomach: $ 508
12. Small intestine: $ 2,519
13. Kidney: $ 262,000
14. Vesicle: $ 1,219
15. Skin: $ 10 per square inch

The greater use of donors genetically unrelated means that more attention must be paid to informed and voluntary consent, in addition to diversifying a greater culture of donation . 

Therefore, proposals to offer incentives in various situations should be carefully examined in order to prevent commercialization or exploitation in the face of an urgent organ transplant.

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Video Medicine: How Much Is The Human Body Worth? (April 2024).