Organ Transplant Regulations Are Killing People
Organ Transplant Regulations Are Killing People
I've blogged on this a number of times, and a friend of mine, Virginia Postrel, actually gave a kidney to another woman, AEI's Sally Satel. I'm blogging this again because Thomas Sowell has an eloquent piece up about it on Investors.com. An excerpt:
On the most basic economic principles, it should be expected that more organs would be supplied at some price than at no price. How high that price would have to be depends on the value of the organ to the potential donor, as well as the risks of the operation and the increased risk to a kidney donor if, for example, the remaining kidney were to malfunction at some future time.For people who are paid while living for an organ to be transplanted after death, even a heart has no postmortem value to the donor, nor would the financial costs or medical risks of a transplant be a deterrent.
Where parents or other family members are allowed to sell the organs of someone who died unexpectedly, there may be psychic costs for some upon realizing that a loved one's body is to be cut up or there may be psychic benefits in knowing that their loved one is passing on the gift of life to another human being.
It is unnecessary for third parties to weigh the balance, since each individual is different and all can make their own decisions on such personal matters, as can living organ donors.
Current prices paid for organ transplants, in countries where paying is legal, provide only the most general and potentially misleading idea of what such prices would be in a free market. Given the many countries in which organ sales are illegal, that illegality restricts the world supply, causing prices to be higher than otherwise in those countries where such transplants are legal.
Where organ transplant sales take place despite being illegal, the price paid must be higher than the free-market price, as with all black markets, for the risks of the illegality to seller or broker must also be compensated, for this activity to continue.
Perhaps the highest price of all for illegal organ transplants is the absence of the quality of medical care and organ screening that would be expected if the operation took place under normal and legal conditions.
via Insty
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