Buying and Selling Organs?

The National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA) [1], a federal law, makes it illegal to buy or sell organs for profit. You can be sentenced to five years in prison or a $50,000 fine, or both. It is also illegal under the law of most states to sell organs for profit. If you donate your organs, though, you can be reimbursed for some of the costs involved. [2]

Society has not shunned the sale of hair, sperm, blood, and other replenishable body parts, the question of whether society should venture into the commercialization of human organs remains unsettled; not so much because of a growing desire of individuals to sell their organs for transplantation, but partially because of the explosion of the biotechnology industry. Yes, a growing number of patients are waiting for an organ transplant, and alternatives to increase the donor supply are in constant demand. However, simply stated, advances in biotechnology have generated uses and needs for bodily tissues that were unfathomable until recent years. And although federal and state laws ban the buying and selling of organs for transplantation, they have not exclusively banned their use in research, education, and commercial endeavors, all of which have increased their value.[3]

One other difference than being replenishable between donating some body parts(blood, sperm and eggs) and internal organs is that they can be donated without risks for the living donor, but this is one argument that shows that we already have commercialized some parts of the body.

Many economists encourage the creation of legal framework to allow organ trade not only to eliminate the organ shortage but also to help dissolve the corrupt illegal market.

The subject of paying living organ donors appears to be one of the slipperiest of “slippery slope” issues, but a Nobel Prize-winning economist not only endorses the practice, he’s come up with some prices.

Saying that “economists are always answering unanswerable questions,” University of Chicago professor Gary Becker, PhD, calculates that private insurers or the government should pay living donors $15,000 for a kidney and $32,000 for a piece of liver.[4]

Clearly, the need of donors are far greater than the supply, and people die waiting in line for years.

■ Can this be a solution to the shortfall of organs?
Would it bring more living and/or deceased organ donors?
■ Is there an ethical downfall?
Ethical pros and cons?
■ Should some body parts be commercialized but not others? Which parts should be included/excluded? Livers, kidneys, hearts or only replenishable parts?
■ Who would then buy the organs? Strictly the government only, or should it be unregulated?
■ Should it cover only citizen to citizen transplant, or should foreign organs be included?