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EnglishEssayBioethics

Organ donation: a causes and effects argument essay

The genre is a causal argument, not a debate about whether organ sale is right. Choosing an ethical position instead of a causal claim is the fastest way to write a good essay for the wrong assignment.

Editorial process

Last reviewed · August 15, 2026

01

Causes and effects — and the essay must persuade

Read the genre before choosing the topic. This is a persuasive essay about causes and effects, and the brief says the trend must have a definable set of causes and effects. That rules out the discussion this subject usually attracts — whether selling organs should be legal — unless you convert it into a causal claim. The organ shortage persists because of specific identifiable causes, and the transplant tourism market exists because of that shortage: those are causal statements you can defend with evidence. Should people be allowed to sell a kidney is a moral question, and answering it well would still be the wrong assignment. Word count is a real constraint on this one and worth planning against, since a causal argument needs room for its chain and 1,750 words disappears quickly once the phenomenon has been introduced and the sources set up. Budget the sections before drafting rather than discovering at 1,400 words that the effects still need arguing.

Bound the phenomenon tightly, because 1,750 words is not much for a topic this large. The shortage in one country, transplant tourism from one region, the effect of an opt-out consent system, or the growth of living donation are each bounded enough to argue properly. Then build a causal chain a reader can follow and be careful about the distinctions that carry the argument: correlation is not cause, a necessary condition is not a sufficient one, and most effects here are multiply determined — an opt-out register changes the default but does not by itself change donation rates, because family consent and clinical infrastructure sit between the register and the transplant. Acknowledging that makes the essay more persuasive rather than less, since a single-cause account of a system this complicated invites the obvious objection. Check what your instructor counts as an academic resource before you cite advocacy organisations, whose figures are often accurate and whose framing is not neutral.

Likely learning objectives

Inferred from the brief — check these against your own rubric.

  • 01
    Distinguish a causal argument from a moral one.
  • 02
    Bound a phenomenon to a defensible scope.
  • 03
    Build a causal chain with intermediate steps.
  • 04
    Distinguish necessary from sufficient causes.
Assignment instructionsQuoted verbatim

Read the full question

Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.

Choose a trend or phenomenon related to the sale, trade, or donation of human organs. The trend or phenomenon should have a definable set of causes and effects. Write a 1,500–1,750-word argument using five to seven academic resources that persuades an audience to accept your explanation of the causes and effects of your chosen trend or phenomenon related to the sale, trade, or donation of human organs.
Course-wide instructions that accompany this question

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes. Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages. Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor. Donation of human organs Essay The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument. ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS Discussion Questions (DQ) Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words. Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source. One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words. I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses. Weekly Participation Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately. In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies. Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work). Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week. APA Format and Writing Quality Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required). Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation. I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition. Use of Direct Quotes I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly. As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content. It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source. LopesWrite Policy For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me. Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes. Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own? Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score. Late Policy The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies. Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances. If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect. I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension. As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading. Communication Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class. Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours. Donation of human organs Essay

02

Turn the brief into deliverables

  1. 01
    A bounded trend with a stated scope.
  2. 02
    A causal claim rather than an ethical position.
  3. 03
    A chain of causes with intermediate mechanisms.
  4. 04
    Effects distinguished by their level.
  5. 05
    Five to seven sources that meet the academic standard.
03

Bound the phenomenon, then argue the chain

01

The phenomenon, bounded

Define the trend, its scope and how it is measured.

02

The causal thesis

State the explanation the essay will persuade the reader to accept.

03

The chain of causes

Set out the causes with the mechanisms linking them.

04

The effects

Distinguish effects at individual, system and international levels.

05

The obvious objection

Address the strongest alternative explanation.

04

Five to seven academic sources, and what counts

Recommended databases

  • PubMed Central
  • JSTOR
  • Your library's academic databases
  • Government transplant statistics

Search sequence

  1. 1.
    Confirm what your instructor accepts as an academic resource.
  2. 2.
    Find the official statistics for the trend you are describing.
  3. 3.
    Look for a study testing whether a policy change actually changed rates.
  4. 4.
    Identify the strongest alternative explanation before writing.
05

Reference shortlist

These are authoritative starting points, not a ready-made bibliography. A qualified reviewer must confirm that each source fits the assignment and supports the claim beside which it is cited.

Nothing here is cleared for citation until you have read it.

  1. 01

    Recovery of transplantable organs after cardiac or circulatory death: transforming the paradigm for the ethics of organ donation

    Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine · 2007

    On how the definition of death and donation-after-circulatory-death protocols reshaped organ availability, which is a documented causal mechanism.

  2. 02

    Transplant Tourism to China: The Impact on Domestic Patient Care Decisions

    Clinical Transplantation · 2010

    On transplant tourism and its effects on domestic care decisions, which is the shortage's downstream consequence.

  3. 03

    Allowing HIV-positive organ donation: ethical, legal and operational considerations

    American Journal of Transplantation · 2013

    On a specific policy change to donor eligibility, useful as a bounded case with identifiable causes and effects.

  4. 04

    Argument Papers

    Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) · 2024

    On structuring a persuasive argument, which is the genre requirement this essay is marked against.

06

Review before submission

Common mistakes

  • Writing an ethics debate instead of a causal argument.
  • Choosing a scope too large for the word count.
  • Presenting correlation as cause.
  • Citing advocacy figures as academic sources without checking.

Submission checklist

  • Is your thesis a causal claim?
  • Is the phenomenon narrow enough to argue in 1,750 words?
  • Does your chain have intermediate steps rather than one jump?
  • Do your sources meet the stated standard?

Use this guide to plan and review your own work. Follow your institution's rules and read our academic-integrity policy.

Written by

Aaron Bishop

MA, Education

assignment interpretation and research-methods coaching across disciplines

Aaron leads the EssayCrackers editorial desk. He works on how assignment briefs are read — what a rubric is actually asking for, and where students most often answer a different question than the one set.

Reviewed by

Dr. Nathan Cole

PhD, Rhetoric & Composition

Argumentation and thesis development

Nathan teaches first-year composition and directs a university writing center. He reviews EssayCrackers guides for argumentative soundness and citation accuracy.

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