Paying Bone Marrow Donors

The author of the editorial “Battling Over Bone Marrow” is trying to persuade people that although there is a valid argument in paying people for bone marrow donations, at this point the risks outweigh the benefits.  The author includes arguments from both sides of the issue and doesn’t discount the possible benefits of the other side’s ideas.  This makes the author very credible and believable, even though the article is an opinion piece.  The author’s intended audience is anyone who has considered donating but hasn’t because they are unaware the procedure has changed or people who might be motivated to get the word out about registering donors for bone marrow transplants.

The article begins by explaining that the current federal law prohibits payment for donating organs, but that it is legal to pay people to donate blood or plasma.  The federal law considers bone marrow in the same category as other organs, currently making it illegal to pay people to donate it.  The argument is that bone marrow was wrongly included with organs because it can regenerate like blood and plasma and therefore it should not be illegal to provide financial compensation for donating.  The author admits that a suit filed by the Institute for Justice, which argues this fact, has some valid ideas about the good that could come from paying people to donate.  For example, it is more likely that people will register to donate if they get paid for it.

The argument against it points out that the lack of donors is not the reason why many people don’t get a bone marrow transplant.  There are other factors that prevent them getting the transplant, such as lack of heath coverage or access to advanced medical facilities or their condition worsens too quickly to receive the transplant.  The author says that financial compensation has a lot of risks that come with it and only a small chance of it benefiting people who need it.  It could backfire because money sometimes motivates donors to hide medical conditions, which could negatively impact patients receiving donor bone marrow.  The author suggests community outreach programs to encourage people to register to be a donor.

I agree with the author, and I think that at this point there are still other issues preventing people who need it from getting bone marrow transplants, such as the lack of health care and lack of access to facilities that can provide the service.  In this case these issues should be addressed first.  Also, I think that if more people knew that the new procedure for donating bone marrow is not as painful as the old method of puncturing the hipbone with a large needle and is now “not much tougher than giving blood” more people would register.  Donors should not have to pay a hundred dollars just to register.  Eliminating the fee would encourage more people to become a bone marrow donor.  I believe that these changes, rather than paying donors, could save many more lives.