An Issue of Bone Marrow Donors

Thousands upon thousands of people living all around the world are searching for a bone marrow donor this very second. Finding a donor with a genetic match is crucial, and will make the difference between life and death for the patients in need. Finding a donor that has bone marrow with the right genetic components as the patient is not an easy task. It is very hard to find a person with a match because there are not many people willing to become a donor. There is a huge controversial debate on whether bone marrow donors should be compensated. As of 2014, unfortunately, it is still illegal for a bone marrow donor to be compensated. Bone marrow donors should undoubtedly be compensated because the number of donors will increase astoundingly, bone marrow does grow back in one’s lifetime and is not like an organ that doesn’t return, and this positive initiative will save a tremendous amount of lives. The number one concern of everyone involved should be about the patient receiving the right match for a bone marrow transplant, and surviving, not about how it is considered “unethical.” While finding a perfect match for a donor isn’t easy in 2014, within the next ten years, hopefully our federal government will

see that compensating bone marrow donors isn’t harmful to anyone involved and will save many lives.

Compensating bone marrow, by providing scholarships that are completely from charity donations, will be a low-cost solution to make more people interested in becoming a donor. This will immensely increase the number of matches for each patient, because there will be many more donors to choose from. It also must be stressed that charity donations will strictly provide these scholarships, not the patient, or the patient’s family. That would be a financial burden to the entire family, which is not something the family should have to worry about, as well as all of the medical concerns. These compensations would not depend on the financial income of the family, “…so there is no danger that the incentives will “aid” only the rich” (Rowes 2011). The number of donors will multiply when people interested in becoming a donor see that there is a positive incentive involved.

It is illegal to compensate both organ donors and bone marrow donors, but the two have a characteristic that is completely different from one another. When a person donates their organ, it does not grow back. It is gone forever. When a person donates bone marrow, it will eventually grow back again in time. It is perfectly legal for egg, sperm, and blood donors to be paid for their donations. Many people think of bone marrow and think of it as something huge, while it is just blood cells that are just immature. Why is it legal to compensate blood donors, but not bone marrow donors? The procedures used for both blood donations and bone marrow donations are very similar. Bone marrow donors should be treated like egg, blood, and sperm donors. Each of those types of donations will save or create new lives, and the donor will either already have, or gain more of what they donated (sperm, blood, egg, and bone marrow) quickly after the procedure.

Many people argue that bone marrow donors shouldn’t be compensated because of its unethicality. Whether or not it is ethical, or right or wrong, shouldn’t stop anyone from seeing how much compensation could really make the difference between life and death for almost all patients. While people may want to donate for the wrong reasons, compensating donors will increase the amount of donors, which is ultimately the most important thing. It is also argued that unethicality of compensation, will raise safety concerns for the patients receiving the transplant and that “…the promise of compensation may cause the donor to be less forthcoming, placing either the patient or the donor at unnecessary risk” (Petersdorf 2011). This means that a person with certain diseases may apply to be a donor and apply for the money aspect, while keeping some of their medical history hidden, putting themselves and the patient in danger. A way that this can be avoided is by making every donor that is applying to provide his or her own complete, official medical records, while also making it mandatory for them to take screenings for certain diseases, and receiving any immunizations, if necessary. This will eliminate any uncertainties concerning safety of compensating donors. By offering compensation to bone marrow donors, and requiring medical screenings and records for those who apply, thousands more lives will be saved every single day safely.

Offering compensating to bone marrow donors is the best option to get more people interested in becoming a donor, which will then drastically increase the number of lives that are saved. The donor pool will become much larger so it will be much easier for patients to find the right genetic match. The cells of bone marrow grow back very soon after the donation is given, just like sperm, eggs, and blood do, which is why it should be legal for a bone marrow donor to also be compensated. A bone marrow donation should not be treated like an organ donation because they are very different from one another. An organ will not grow back. Bone marrow is renewable. Bone marrow donors should be rewarded with small scholarships because it will increase the number of donors, it is very similar to donating blood, which is legal to be compensated, and it will make the difference between life and death for most patients. Patients right now are searching for their perfect bone marrow match within the limited pool of donors, in what may be their last years, months, days, minutes, or even seconds of their lives. This devastating fact can be changed forever, if we allow compensation to bone marrow donors. It can make all the difference. Lets give these patients the life they deserve, and help them live for many years ahead.