Proposal (How to increase organ donating in the United States) Essay

Proposal (How to increase organ donating in the United States) - Essay Example In 2005, 7,593 deceased donors provided 21,215 organs for transplantation, and there were 6,896 living donors. But this growth lags far behind the increasing need, as approximately 40,000 individuals are added to the U.S. transplant waiting list each year, with a net increase of about 6,000 people over the prior year. At the start of 2006, more than 90,000 people were waiting to receive organs." (News) There is a wide figurative gap between availability of organs and the number of patients waiting for them. If not given immediate attention, human mortality will reach to even higher summit and still rising. A number of proposals have been put forward to dramatically increase organ and tissue donation in the United States. One proposal has been to provide financial incentives to donors or their families. Another proposal to increase rates of organ and tissue donation is presumed consent. This is "an opt-out system in which everyone is considered to be a donor unless they take appropriate steps to declare themselves a nondonor." (Gallup Organization, 2005). Counteracting misinformation through public education is also one of the suggested options. Mandated choice also offers "an alternative to obtaining consent from the family by returning control to the individual. This plan would require all adults to record their wishes about posthumous organ donation and would consider those wish es binding." (Spital, 1996). As mentioned by James F. Childress, John Allen Hollingsworth Professor of Ethics, professor of medical education, and director, Institute for Practical Ethics and Public Life, University of Virginia, Charlottesville in the News of Institute of Medicine of the National Academies last May 2, 2006, the "best approaches are to pursue ways to increase donations based on circulatory determination of death, to enhance public education about the value of organ donation, to increase opportunities for people to opt in, and to sustain quality improvements in the organ donation system." These mentioned approaches are the result of government's examination of a wide range of proposals to increase rates of organ donation. Surely, the mentioned approaches will dramatically increase the figure of organ donation, in short term basis. This therefore, does not guarantee a steady and effective supply of organs in the long run. Most organs come from deceased donors whose deaths were clinically found to be neurologic-"irreversible loss of activity in the brain, including in the brain stem" (News) and circulatory-"irreversible loss of heart function that leads to permanent cessation of blood circulation" (News) and therefore eligible for the cause. Circulatory determination of death still has to consider and evaluate the ethical implications of deceased organ donation. On the other hand, increasing opportunities for people to opt in may work. People are now considering their organs to be donated. In a 2005 National Public Opinion Survey on Organ Donation, this was manifested when 52.7% of Americans have granted permission for donation of organs or tissues on a driver's license or an organ donor card. The statistics represents "a significant increase since 1993 when only 28% had granted permission for donation on a driver's license or an organ donor card" (Gallup Organization, 2005), and yet this number does

Hannebachite- a rare and important Sulphite Term Paper

Hannebachite- a rare and important Sulphite - Term Paper Example In fact Hannebachite among the two most important naturally occurring sulfites, the other being Orschallite (Ca3(SO3)2(SO4).12H2O). Hannebachite, Orschallite, scotlandite (PbSO3) and gravegliaite are rare sulphite minerals that come under the class of Sulphites. The name â€Å"hannebachite† has been derived from the place it was first discovered in i.e.at Hannerbacherly, near Hannebach, West Germany. Sulfite groups have the generalized formula Am[SO3]pZq ·xH2O and AmBn[SO3]pZq ·xH2O, where A and B both are cations and Z represent anion. The most commonly occurring cations groups binding includes Na+, K+, Cu2+, Mg2+, Al3+, Ca2+, Pb2+, and Ba2+. The molecular arrangement of sulphite is such that the sulfur molecule is at the apex of the pyramid thereby making sulfites really unstable. This is the reason why sulphite minerals are rarely found in nature. Hannebachite is an important component of fixated scrubber sludge. The structure of Hannebachite has several applications an d forms the basis of further investigation since the applications of the mineral are yet to be determined and hence immense scope of research lies in this area. Introduction Hannebachite received its IMA status in 1983 following which the first ever publication on it was produced by G.Hentschel, E.Tillmanns and W. Hofmeister in 1985; however, the first person to detect the presence of this mineral was P.Orschall who was also the discoverer of Orschallite mineral. He found these minerals in a place named Hannerbacherly in West Germany. In nature Hannebachite is mostly found along with another sulfite mineral called Orschallite. Other minerals found in the porous cavities of quaternary melilite nepheline leucitite are clinopyroxene, apatite and phillipsite COMPOSITION The mineral –hannebachite, gained importance owing to commercial research on sulfite rich scrubber materials. Studies have shown that sulfite rich scrubber material extracted from power plants were rich in Hanneba chite crystallites (Malhotra,2010). In nature Hannebachite is found as sharp, almost clear crystalline structure. The composition of the mineral is SO2 49.60%,CaO 43.42%, H2O 6.98% which corresponds to its molecular formula (Anthony et al,2000).Sulfites in nature are highly unstable owing to the pyramidal structure where the sulfur is seen at the apex while the oxygen sits on the other corners of the arrangement; thereby these unstable products change into sulfates. However, CaSO4.0.5H2O can substitute into the CaSO3.0.5H2O structure up to a mole fraction of at least 0.12 (Jones et al., 1977). Structure of Hannebachite It is already known that the chemical composition of the mineral includes carbon, hydrogen sulfur and oxygen. The molecular weight is about 258.30gm. Hannebachite is orthorhombic. Its space group is Pbna (2m/2m/2m). Extensive studies have been done to determine the exact structure of the mineral. Powder diffraction was conducted to calculate the single crystal profile (figure 3). The optical class of the mineral was seen to be biaxial. It was recorded that a= 6.46A, b= 7.765A and c=10.650A which means that in the orthorhombic crystal system of hannebachite alpha=90 °, beta= 90 ° and gamma=90 °. The J-mol structure gives a clear interpretation of this structure (Figure:3). Spectroscopic studies conducted brought forward a clear idea of the bonding between the atoms present (Figure 1). The structure of hannebachite mineral was studied through Raman Spectroscopy by Frost and Keefe. The sample for hannebachite was supplied by Mineralogical Research Company who sourced in from the Hannebacher Ley volcano in Germany. The bands are observed at