I read some of Discover magazine today, and there was an article of a organ transplant clinic in India that was illegally selling kidneys to people who really need them. They were buying them from people for as little as $300 and then implanting them in people from other countries that paid quite a lot. For many of these people this was the only chance they had other than waiting to get one on a list of 88,000 (in the USA) needing kidneys. Often people have to wait five or more years to get a kidney, and have to life on dialysis (cleaning blood with a machine instead of a dead kidney) three times a week. It is grueling and takes quite a bit out of you. There is risk of infection and lots of other complications. A replacement kidney would eliminate all these problems. People are born with two kidneys and recent studies suggest that kidney donors have good long term health (http://www.webmd.com/news/20100309/low-long-term-health-risk-for-kidney-donors).
Now, I can donate a kidney if I want, or I live with it. It is not legal to sell any organ, but I do have to wonder if selling it makes sense. People die from kidney failure, and people live with two kidneys. Why not allow someone to "sell" theirs? You can buy sperm, or eggs, but not an organ. Why not? What if someone could pay their student loans off with a kidney sale? What if someone's life could be saved in the process? Where is the real crime in that. If it was government sanctioned and performed in a safe hospital setting I really can't see a problem in it. People would not be forced to sell, but would be able to based on current market values. Ideally a patient could just eat a pill and grow a new one, but that is a long way off. Why don't we do what we can now and save a few lives?
-UW
