for sale: working kidney, gently used.
Is your body your own?
If so (and I know that 99% of you nodded in affirmation of the above question), then shouldn’t it be yours to do with as you please, provided you harm no one else?
And if that’s the case, shouldn’t you be allowed to sell it, in parts or as a whole, to a willing buyer?
Robin watched a reason.tv video this morning concerning organ donations. In the U.S., we have a severe shortage of donor kidneys, and the Reason piece talked about the fact that it’s illegal for a donor to sell a kidney. You can donate one free of charge, but there’s a federal law against saying, “I’m willing to sell a kidney; please submit some bids.”
They also mentioned that the only country in the world where you can legally sell a kidney is Iran. And guess the only country in the world where there’s no waiting list for donor kidneys? That’s right…Iran again.
Now, I’m not suggesting we emulate the Iranians in any way, shape, or form, but why is it that their country is the only place in the world where self-ownership is taken to its logical conclusion when it comes to one’s own organs?
Here in the U.S., you can give away your kidney for free, but the second you receive a single cent for it in compensation, you’ve violated federal law. This is despite the fact that everyone else involved in the process is not working for free. Everyone is compensated properly: the surgeons who perform the transplant, the nurses who assist, certainly the recipient, and even the folks who mop the floor in the E.R. afterwards. Everyone is compensated…except the person actually providing the good in question.
How messed up is that, when you stop and think about it?
Part of the reason for this attitude is the insidious doctrine of altruism that has infested Western thought, the brainchild of Immanuel Kant. In short, it is held that an action is immoral when it benefits yourself, and moral when it benefits another. Therefore, if you want to give your kidney away to Joe Smith because he needs one, people will laud you as a selfless hero…but if you contact Joe Smith and negotiate a price for that kidney so you may have compensation for the surgery and the subsequent increased risk of health issues, you’re a selfish profiteer.
I’ve heard the arguments against legalizing the sale of one’s organs–rich people will buy the organs of poor people, and we have to protect people from the results of their bad decisions at all costs, and all that nonsense. Yet 5,000 people die every year while on the waiting list for a kidney, and those folks are written off as collateral damage in the process. If we let the market determine the supply, the waiting list could be eliminated virtually overnight, and everyone involved would make out in the process. We’d save a ton of lives, and more importantly, we’d give more than just lip service to the notion that a person is their own master, and not the property of the community.
Well, do you own your body? If not, then who does? Why shouldn’t you be allowed to sell what you may give away for free?
ADDENDUM: Standard Mischief makes a great point in the Comments section.
If you die in an accident, and you have the “Organ Donor” thingie on your driver’s license (or your family gives consent to the donation), everybody involved in the process makes a ton of cash–profit–off your spare parts: the hospital, the organ transport agent, the surgeon, and so on. Ever wonder why not even your estate is not allowed to partake in those profits? That’s hardly about protecting you at that point, is it?
March 20, 2008 at 11:31 am
Well, that makes perfect logical sense. Therefore, it will never catch on.
March 20, 2008 at 11:42 am
I really don’t see the problem with selling one’s organs for profit. It irks me when people make BS arguments against paid donation simply because of their own discomfort with the idea. Well written, good sir!
March 20, 2008 at 11:59 am
[...] by keepbreathing in Uncategorized. trackback Marko over at The Munchkin Wrangler has written an interesting piece about paid organ donation. I always have been the sort to make light of organ donation. Indeed, a friend of mine and I had a [...]
March 20, 2008 at 12:07 pm
I agree that people should be able to do with their bodies as they will. I am an organ donor but I can’t for the life of me imagine why anyone would insist on keeping their organs after death so they can be wasted while rotting in the ground with the rest of your body. I respect that decision and have heard many reasons from religion to beliefs that people are not like cars and we were not intended to be “cannibalized” for spare parts. On the same vein of your post, I don’t understand why so many perfectly good organs are being wasted instead of used to help those 5000 people a year you mentioned, or others, who die waiting for organs such as these.
March 20, 2008 at 1:09 pm
You silly, silly, logical guy, you.
March 20, 2008 at 1:42 pm
If the government won’t even let people rent their own organs out for recreational purposes, there’s no way they’d ever consider letting them sell them for a good cause.
Joe
March 20, 2008 at 1:54 pm
And then there are the inevitable kidney lawsuits …
Receiving compensation for your “product” entitles the consumer to ridiculous damage settlements should said kidney prove defective.
Yay!
March 20, 2008 at 2:04 pm
“It was working when I had it…”
Seriously, do you think that liability is something that can’t be addressed adequately through contracts?
March 20, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Ask all those people who worry about poor people being organ growing fodder for the rich if they would be OK if one’s estate could receive a profit for valuable bits of organs still usable after I no longer have any use for them.
Picture this, I die tomorrow when a body panel that flies off the car ahead of me decapitates me. Like Marco says, if my family agrees to the organ donation, then it’s a ton of cash for everyone (hospital, surgeon, transport agent,…
except my family. Wouldn’t it be reasonable to get the fair market value to pay down my mortgage or pay for a burial plot? Or should everyone else be disallowed the ability to make a profit too?
March 20, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Replace kidney with sex, and you have an argument for legalization of prostitution!
March 20, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Like I said, why shouldn’t you be able to sell your body in parts or as a whole, if you truly own it?
And if you should be able to sell what you own, you sure as hell ought be able to rent it out. After all, that’s the concept behind any sort of labor for money…we rent out our brains or muscles. I fail to see the logic behind drawing the line at the naughty bits. What, I can give someone pleasure for money by writing a kick-ass story for them, or giving them a massage, or mowing their lawn, but not by getting them off?
Makes no sense at all.
March 20, 2008 at 4:27 pm
I only have one kidney.
I’ll take donations.
I can pay in invective.
March 20, 2008 at 4:37 pm
I’m all for certain drugs and “acts” being legalized and then taxed appropriately. How is prostitution different than any other service we provide each other? How are certain drugs worse than alcohol? Lotta hypocrisy in this world…
March 20, 2008 at 6:06 pm
My son had a double-transplant at age 11 mos from a cadaverous donor. He got a liver / small-bowel combo. As a result, I’ve met several other transplanted folks and their families.
There are a few reasons I’ve heard why people can’t just buy organs. The way organs are allocated in the US is that the sickest patient is supposed to get the available organ first. If paying donors or donor families after the donor is dead comes into play, the allocation will no longer work like this. It’s like cutting in line for cadaverous donations. There are programs in place to assist with payments, if you are a recipient, so not all the $ comes from your insurance or your pocket.
People may lie or hide diseases or other conditions that would affect the health of the recipient if they are getting paid for the organ. No one is a saint, and (while the plural of anecdote is not data) I personally know someone who was actively being treated for breast cancer who desperately needed a kidney transplant for her son, and tried to hide the treatment so she could be his donor. I am extrapolating that into: druggies looking for a fix, someone desperately needing cash who isn’t in the best of health, etc. trying to flog off their organs to the highest bidder. And there are definitely doctors who will at the very least look the other way about donor health (as well as giving preferential treatment to patients with $), as was widely publicized ?last year? ?2006? when that LA-area hospital had to stop performing transplants.
I agree that the current system isn’t perfect, but I disagree that allowing wholesale organ sales is the way to go. I don’t have a solution thought up, myself, and I remember being on the waiting list and hoping we’d get organs for my son in time. –lexi
March 20, 2008 at 7:25 pm
remember gilda radner’s snl skits of an old lady doing op eds about subjects she misunderstood?
in the early 80’s when a live call-in talk radio program’s leftist host and decidedly liberal palm beach jewish listenership were earnestly deriding the reagan administration for providing weapons to south american contras, i couldn’t resist calling in with my best imitation of gilda’s character’s harpy voice:
“what’s all this i hear about arms sales? the way i see it, it’s a free country…everybody has two arms; if they only need one, why shouldn’t they be allowed to sell one if they want to?…”
after several seconds of stunned silence, the show’s hosts said “ma’am we’re talking about guns, you know? that kind of arms, not the kind with hands…”
to which i, still in character, replied “ohhh….never mind!”
only after i hung up did they start to get the bit, and tried to sternly say that this was a serious, somber subject they were discussing…but they couldn’t hold back the giggles, and by the time they went to commercial break, both were in full belly laugh mode.
well, it might have been comedy, but the old lady was right…and it’s just another instance where the various vested interests will try to seperate their particular sacred cow from the freedoms that all Americans, at least in theory, enjoy, summed up by one simple libertarian credo: in America, “an individual is free to do and act as he pleases, as long as he harms or infringes on the rights of no other individual.” simple, isn’t it? and it doesn’t matter if you’re talking about arms, kidneys, guns, drugs, or nookie; it’s really the only law we need. jtc
March 20, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Actually, I’m pro legalization of prostitution. Wasn’t clear in my comment.
March 20, 2008 at 9:51 pm
I’d actually prefer retail.
March 20, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Allowing people to sell organs would save thousands of lives every year. Unfortunately, there is no reason to think Congress will legalize this in the foreseeable future.
Fortunately, there is an already-legal way to put a big dent in the organ shortage — allocate donated organs first to people who have agreed to donate their own organs when they die. The United Network for Organ Sharing, which manages the national organ allocation system, has the power to make this simple policy change. No legislative approval is required.
Americans who want to donate their organs to other registered organ donors don’t have to wait for UNOS to act. They can join LifeSharers, a non-profit network of organ donors who agree to offer their organs first to other organ donors when they die. Membership is free at http://www.lifesharers.org or by calling 1-888-ORGAN88. There is no age limit, parents can enroll their minor children, and no one is excluded due to any pre-existing medical condition.
Giving organs first to organ donors will convince more people to register as organ donors. It will also make the organ allocation system fairer. People who aren’t willing to share the gift of life should go to the back of the waiting list as long as there is a shortage of organs.
March 21, 2008 at 12:16 am
Regarding the lifesharers thing: Once you have received an organ transplant, I believe you are prevented from donating your organs. When my son had his transplant we were told that he wouldn’t be able to donate blood or organs in the future.
–lexi
March 21, 2008 at 7:13 am
Been having a good old think about this for the last n hours.
The argument against permitting the sale of organs is pretty much to prevent people getting abused by rich folk, or to prevent people making ill-advised sales due to their own medical condition.
*brow furrows*
So the whole thing is tied off to prevent abuses that a simple contract could stop in the first place.
The argument about organs being doled out to the sickest first, skipping the whole “To each according to their needs, from each according to whether or not they got T-boned on time” line of crap, leaves out those 5,000 people per annum who die for want of those organs.
Nah. I just can’t see the sanity in not permitting it. In fact, it’s repugnant that anyone sees it as a matter of “permission” in the first place. Ho hum.
March 21, 2008 at 9:58 am
I simply don’t understand why people like the argument “what happens when people lie about the condition of the organ, like a druggie trying to get a fix?” I recall many people raising that point in past discussions too, but it seems so obvious in it’s solution.
If you are going to pay X dollars for a kidney, wouldn’t you have your own doctor review the seller? I mean, when one buys a house, you have a whole disclosure form the seller fills out, you then also generally have your own inspector go through the place, and have yet another company run water tests etc. Generally you also grill the neighbors.
I don’t see why similar set ups wouldn’t exist for the selling of organs. It would be quite lucrative I suspect to have a certification company where the patient called you up and says they want the seller tested. The seller comes in and you run a barrage of blood tests and the like, and then sign off on behalf of the seller. There are places like that now that contract to companies for drug tests etc. that employment is based on. I would love to get in on that action, let me tell you!
March 21, 2008 at 10:19 pm
The post had my jaw dropped the entire time, as it made perfect logical sense. Yet Lexi’s first response cut through any lingering strawmen regarding the other position.
Current policy is as much about safety for the donee as for the donor. As such, altruism plays less of a part than the post stated.
As far as open market goes: the lowest priced kidneys will go to those who find them first. So we go to price regulation. Now with a set price, low-income people without health insurance (McDonalds, I’m lookin’ at you) can’t pay, and have to wait for donations. And who would donate for free when there’s an easy check waiting for anyone with a larger than average electric bill? Thus those the current system is intended to aid (those who couldn’t afford it in the market) are left on dialysis, with a ticking clock as before.
So I agree in principle with the post, but much more discussion would be necessary to iron out the bugs and compensate for human nature’s less savory sides.
March 21, 2008 at 10:22 pm
I’ve linked to this, because it’s a good point. Basically, donations from compensated donors, be they blood, plasma, or organs, have been found to be statistically more likely to transmit disease from non-compensated donors. The Red Cross, AABB, and other folks are willing to bend over backwards to keep the blood supply untainted, and so will the organ folks. The liability risks are too high, and the folks who might lie and get their organs in the system don’t have enough money to be discouraged by lawsuits. The health care system does, and is protecting itself.
You’re correct, if the consequences for lying were sufficently grave (transmit a fatal disease and suffer the death penalty) this might work, But that ain’t gonna fly, and the insurance folks won’t let it.
March 21, 2008 at 11:37 pm
There are other possible solutions that are often overlooked.
The Red Cross does not accept blood donations from patients with hemochromatosis. There is no reason to believe that this genetic disease can be transmitted by transfusion. The problem is the “What if …?” of the paranoid. They were burned by bad risk management with AIDS, now they are just changing their errors.
One solution to the organ donor situation that has been suggested is that you must opt out of organ donation in order to not have your potentially useful organs taken for transplant.
Another is money toward burial expenses.
In the world of medicine, they are not able to determine if your motive was truly selfless, but only judge on appearances. If people were to lie about their health to sell organs, a market for better screening methods would become much more profitable and encourage innovation.
As a blood and platelet donor, I talk with other donors. Some have expressed disgust at the possibility of being paid. They must be getting something worth much more than money in order to feel this way. Should they be trusted?
5,000 people die each year waiting for organs.
We switch to paying for organs.
The number of people who die from failed organ donations has to increase by more than 5,000 to worsen the fatality rate.
Otherwise, more lives are saved.
March 24, 2008 at 5:16 pm
I am the clinical director of an organ procurement organization and have been directly involved in hundreds of organ donor cases over the past fourteen years.
I can give you a couple of arguments against paying for organs.
1) in terms of living donation (kidneys mostly, but livers, pancreata and lungs to a lesser extent), anywhere donation-for-compensation has been allowed, it has led to exploitation of the poor. India is the best example of this; the “donors” (not all are willing) receive substandard care and end up with a missing kidney and extensive health problems, and relatively little money left over after paying for unforeseen medical expenses.
2) in the case of deceased organ donation, with a finacial incentive dangling in front of them families could have an incentive to lie about their loved one’s medical/social history. As just one example, even a remote history of melanoma is an exclusion for organ donation because of the many documented cases of transmission from donor to recipient. So when I go in to talk to a family about donation and tell them that I have a check for $10K if their loved one is a suitable donor, then proceed to ask them a series of make-or-break questions about their loved one’s history, do you think they might have some incentive to lie about that history? Do you want to bet your life on it?
Organ donation after death is simply the right thing to do. Any reasonable person would stop to render aid to another (absent a sitation that would put the renderer in unreasonable danger). Indeed, at least one state requires that citizens stop to render aid if no others are present to do so. Organ donation is no different. Deceased organ donors suffer no ill effects from donation. The only reasons people say no to donation is ignorance (traumatic or otherwise) or misanthropy. Neither one is a legitimate excuse, in my mind.
In my mind, living donation is less clear as a societal obligation because the risk, while still relatively small, is still there, and it’s not an easy procedure to undergo.
also, to clear up a few other misconceptions: Frostedleexicharm: Each potential donor is evaluated at the time of death and simply being a recipient does not exlude one from being an organ donor. Blood and tissue (corneas, skin, bone, etc.) are regulated differently than organs and being a recipient might exclude one from donating these.
Standard mischief: yes, the medical professionals involved in organ donation and transplantation receive compensation for their services. This is no different from any other aspect of medicine, or other services like funeral homes, lawyers, etc. that may be involved in the death of an individual. Hospitals, as a rule, do not make a ton of money on organ transplantation. Indeed, in many cases, a transplant program is essentially a “loss leader” for the hospital, operated to increase prestige (and entice people to come to that hospital for other procedures) rather than direct profits. (Actually, for many hospitals one of the largest profit centers is labor and delivery. Should that be done for free, and the medical staff involved be uncompensated for their efforts?)
Rogue medic & Eric Hammer: we’ve come a long way in terms of donor screening, but for many things we don’t have a test fast enough to allow for reliable screening before organ donation. Rabies is one (as evidenced by the case in Texas a few years ago). Cancer is another. Both can be fatal if transmitted to the recipients. Both can be disguised (for a little while, anyway) by someone driven to do so. All donor screening is imperfect, and we have to make the best judgment we can when weighing the risk/benefit to the recipient. In the case of blood donation, the FDA excludes many different conditions because they feel that the possibility of disease transmission outweighs the risk of using a renewable resource that’s available elsewhere. They make similar rules about tissue donation, since tissue is rarely life-saving but rather “life-enhancing” (in that I can live without an ACL repair, but I’ll live better with it). As organ donation is life-saving (meaning people die without an organ transplant) the risk/benefit judgment is a little different. But we still exclude some people from donation because current science has demonstrated that the risk is unacceptable.
Funny thing is, I’m a small-government conservative, politically. But this is one area where government oversight definitely is needed and has been reasonably effective over the years.
March 26, 2008 at 11:05 am
that’s a lot of words there, pj…but your whole point is really this, isn’t it?
pj: “I’m a small-government conservative, politically. But this is one area where government oversight definitely is needed…”
jtc: “just another instance where the various vested interests (uh, that would be you, pj) will try to seperate their particular sacred cow from the herd of freedoms that all Americans, at least in theory, enjoy…”
March 29, 2008 at 1:29 pm
After the Kelo decision, do you really want integral parts of yourself deemed ‘property’? Can you imagine what would happen when someone decides that there is someone who needs your kidney/liver/heart more than you do?
From what I understand, the Chinese are already doing this.
As a libertarian, the government shouldn’t have any control over what I put in (or remove from) my body. BUT, constitutionally, the government is permitted to restrict what can be sold.
May 3, 2008 at 5:40 pm
I am a registed organ donor . always believed in it. one of my friend had received a kidney from his mother and it failed again. i was thinking about donating it to him until i found out he drank himself thru his mother’s kidney and won’t stop drinking and using drugs (23 years old and on the list for second kidney) he doesn’t deserve mine but got to think what if i give it to someone else who really needs it. Maybe i can even get something out of it. since i am out of work and 2 kids to support on my own. I don’t think anything wrong with that. if i have a chance to do it, i will do it in a heartbeat. Finally buy my kids something nice. KT
May 3, 2008 at 5:42 pm
kacey.thompson96@yahoo.com
May 25, 2008 at 1:34 am
my name is bhaskar naidu i am living from bilaspur chhattisgarh
india i am required 20lakhs rupees and i am sale my kideny to hurry
my contact number is 97+09977050262
July 2, 2008 at 1:49 am
HI
MY NAME IS RAKASH I WANT TO SELL MY ALL BODY PARTS I WANT MONEY AROUND 35,00,000.00 I U WANT TO BUY ME PLEASE CONTACT ME THROUGH MY MAIL ID MY MAIL ID IS RKRD_999@REDIFFMAIL.COM IT WILL SECURAT NO ONE WILL KNOE ANY THING I WILL WRITE AND GIVE TO YOU THAT WHAT EVER U WANT AWAITING FOR UR REPLY MY FAMILY IS IN PROBLENM