Paying for Bodies, But Not for Organs
6 Pages Posted: 20 Jan 2007
Abstract
It is well known that federal law prohibits any kind of payment for transplant organs. But few people realize that cadaver markets do allow payments, and the cadaver market, unlike the organ market, experiences great surpluses. The asymmetric treatment of whole and partial body donations is ethically indefensible and economically inefficient, fueling medical school scandals and causing cadavers and organs to be wasted. We recommend that donors of organs be offered modest payments, similar to what they would have received had they donated the whole body. More generally, we believe that human dignity would be enhanced by relying more heavily on consensual systems of organ and body donations based on market incentives.
Keywords: organ donation, cavers, organ harvesting, organ selling, government regulations, safe tissue act, organ transplant act, whole body donations, organ shortages, funeral regulations, david e. harrington, edward a. sayre, paying for bodies but not for organs
JEL Classification: D74, D78, D84, I18, I19, K11, K23, K42,
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation