How Can Grown Organs and its discussions be Tainted???

Medically, grown organs present an exciting and optimistic opportunity to replace diseased and/or malfunctioning organs.  In humanity’s best interest, lives can be both saved and preserved – the high demand for organs and the long lead times required to receive a donated organ would essentially be eliminated from medical facilities.  Support for the benefit of grown organs may be far reaching from an ethical perspective to help reduce some of the darkest and corrosive crimes in human history.  If the potential to grow organs can be realized instead of the procurement of donated organs, the global illegal organ trafficking market may disintegrate overnight.  According to traffickingproject.org, organ trafficking accounts for around 10 percent of the nearly 70,000 kidney transplants performed worldwide annually (traffickingproject.org, 2008).  On a more macular level, a rich recipient in need of a donor kidney organ would turn to the organ black market which harvests organs from poor donors.  National Geographic reported on a poor neighborhood in India known as "kidney village," where residents illegally sold their kidneys for about $800, which is by far less than the $160,000 price tag allegedly charged by a Brooklyn,NY organ middleman (Stier, 2009).  Illegal organ trafficking presents a moral issue for the entire global community where the heavy demand for healthy organs has materialized a new hidden market where the rich play -- and the poor pay a heavy price.  Yet the materialization of the discussion of the very sensitive topic of grown organs should be explored.   

Given the highly sensitive nature of the manufacturing of grown organs, there is a case to be made whether to approach a robust and thorough discussion of this subject using the Delphi method or the NGT method.  Fundamentally, both methods are used to reach a consensus regarding a subject however the two methods could not be any more divergent in both methodology and purpose.  One method works within hidden and potentially secret communication channels – questionnaires, surveys and emails whereas another method works within a more visible medium fostering open group communication and discussion.  There appears to be a divide and conquer methodology with the Delphi method that may potentially be used to slant an otherwise scholarly discussion toward an anonymous, yet biased and directed point of view depending on the nature of question construction and deconstruction.  In its best form, the Delphi method may be to discussion and learning to what “open source” is to software – a collection of the very best of breed solutions to a very direct and specific problem.    

Keywords:  Global, social, ethical, political, environmental, medical human rights abuse

http://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.1818/healthissue_detail.asp

http://www.traffickingproject.org/2008/03/organ-trafficking-fast-expanding-black.html