Medicine has made great strides in recent centuries. One such advance is organ and tissue transplantation. Transplant recipients are often patients with life-threatening diseases, and these transplants give them a second chance at life. Unfortunately, the number of people needing transplants is growing faster than available organs; statistics say that in the United States seventeen people die every day hoping to receive an organ transplant (Friedman & Friedman, 2006). Laws limit transplantable organs to donated organs; the donor must be of sound mind and at least eighteen years of age. As there is a growing need for organs, questions have been raised about whether monetary compensation could convince more people to become donors. No one will argue that there isn't an organ shortage. Getting to the top of the transplant list can often take years, and in the meantime the patient must undergo expensive and time-consuming treatments that do nothing but slow the organ's failure. For example, dialysis is a common treatment for people with end-stage renal disease. Treatments last several days a week for several hours at a time. In the meantime, medical expenses accumulate and the patient is often no longer able to work or at least work as before the onset of the disease. This will result in a loss of the patient's income and ability to pay for care. If a person with end-stage renal disease had access to a kidney sooner, it could eliminate expenses for the patient, and society could benefit from them returning to work sooner. Furthermore, the money the patient saves on expensive treatments could be used to pay a “donor” for his or her organ (Friedman & Friedman, 2006). The advocates of buying and selling......of available organs, I don't believe the ends justify the means. I believe this would exploit the poor. Poverty forces one to resort to extraordinary measures to provide for one's family and oneself, even at the risk of imprisonment, deterioration of health or death. I believe people would sell their “unneeded” organs like a lung or kidney, at a good market price, only to see the money quickly evaporate because this is not a consistent mode of income. Furthermore, instead of the need-based system currently in place, a legalized market would be about who can pay. This would also ultimately exploit the poor since they cannot pay as much as a rich person. The current system, while imperfect, is the safest and fairest way to ensure that consenting donors and patients needing organs both receive what they want or need without compromising any of the parties involved.