Allowing HIV-infected People To Donate Their Organs

The United States has a major need for kidney, liver and other transplants. In 1984, the National Organ transplant act included the ban of HIV infected organs. Dr. Dorry L. Segev, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine believes that we should lift that band. Several John Hopkins doctors argue that should not disqualify the organs because the patient is already infected. Segev says, “If this legal ban was lifted, we could potentially provide organ transplants to every single HIV-infected candidate on the waiting list”. University of Medicine recently had a study that showed that five hundred donors were disqualified.

This act was made during the AIDS epidemic. Instead of AIDS being a death sentence, today it is a treatable disease. I think it is better to take a chance and potentially save several lives. According to Los Angeles Times, about twenty people die every single day waiting for a transplant. There is not enough research done on people who have had transplants from HIV people. Four people in South Africa had transplants from HIV people and are healthy. Several things in our society are changing, it is time we take the ban off and save more lives.