Waiting for a KidneyThere are 122,365 people waiting for organ donation in the United States; of these 100,218 are waiting for a kidney transplant. The transplant list is so long that some patients wait up to 10 years to receive a kidney. These patients anxiously await a kidney that they may never receive. An article by Barbara Mantel states that the most common reasons for kidney transplant include: hypertension, diabetes mellitus, kidney stones, hereditary kidney disease, and inflammatory effects of drug therapy for other diseases. Records from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services show that in 2012 there were 30 percent more deceased kidney donors than living donors. The difference between a living and deceased kidney donor makes a big difference. Explore Transplant claims that “a living donor transplant lasts longer than a deceased donor transplant because the kidney is removed from a healthy patient rather than a dead one” (“Deceased and Living Donor Donation, Explore Transplant”). They also claim that living donor transplants last 15-20 years, while deceased donor transplants last 10-15 years. This can be the deciding factor in whether a patient will need another kidney transplant in the future. Statistics show that only 30 to 40 percent of Americans identify themselves as organ donors on their driver's license (Organ donor.gov), but what about the other millions of Americans who have healthy, functioning kidneys? That percentage of Americans leave the decision in the hands of their families once they die. However, not all families allow their loved ones to donate their viable kidneys. This type of decision can end the life of another human being. To avoid this kind of situation and......middle of paper......and 21 years old and are mentally stable are automatically included under HOTA (Chew). Those who do not want to be included in the HOTA must opt ​​out before they are considered brain dead, after which doctors will be legally allowed to harvest all their vital organs. However, all those who opt out are given lower priority on the transplant waiting list (Chew). This means that if they ever need a transplant, their name will automatically be at the bottom of the list. The main aim of HOTA is to increase the number of organ donations. This law also allows payments to be made to living donors as reimbursement (Chew). Since this law came into force, experts say that donation rates in Singapore are very low (Chew). The National Organ Transplant Agency calculates that from 2004 to last year, kidney transplants went from 269 to 123. Demonstrating that HOTA has not been effective in encouraging organ donations.