Shortage of Organs

Shortage of Organs

1. Lack of donors

   • Religion
   • Lack of awareness
     • Lack of media coverage
     • Lack of education
   • Planning-implementation gap
   • Misunderstanding about brain death
   • Mistrust in the medical field
   • Personal beliefs
   • Uncomfortable about the idea of their death
     • Fear
   • Disgust
   • Costs
   • Surgery/Health concerns
   • Higher/denied life insurance

2. Increasing number of required organs

   • Increasing population
   • Increasing number of organ failures
     • Increasing lifespan
     • Obesity
     • Heart disease
   • Increasing number of diseases that can be helped by transplantation
     • Medical advancements
       • Enhanced surgical procedures
       • Better immunosuppressants
   • Transplants don't last the whole lifespan of the recepient
     • Must be replaced

3. Logistics

   • Problems in the management of organ transplant activities
   • Lack of gov't policies
   • Lack of coordination between various institutions involved in the process
   • Time limit between procurement and transplantation

4. Long wait-times for organs

   • High death rate
   • Willing to pay exorbitantly high prices
     • Black market
       • Organ harvesting
       • Transplant tourism
         • Poor hospital conditions
           • Risk of further medical complications
     • Poorer people taken advantage of
   • High health care cost during wait times
     • If there's state health insurance: Taxpayer burden
       • Bad for the economy
     • If there's no state health insurance: Huge burden for individuals