A very popular debate that has occurred for several years is the idea of individuals being able to sell their own organs. Incentivizing organ donation could solve a number of issues in terms of waitlists on transplants. To give an example, there are nearly 100,000 Americans that are currently waiting for kidneys and it’s likely that many will be unable to receive the organs that they need to survive.
If there was an incentive for organ donation and the chance that someone in need of a donor could buy a kidney rather than be on a waitlist, this could work at reducing the size of the waitlist and make sure that there was more incentive to offer up healthy organs as an individual.
Currently, the market for kidneys and other organs are illegal. In the United States the price of an organ has to be zero dollars but at a black-market price, it’s possible that the kidney could easily fetch thousands. The big debate is that making these types of markets illegal is essentially killing other individuals.
The debate on the other side is that those that could control the markets would easily exploit other individuals. In order to combat this specific issue, it’s important that appropriate tests take place so that everyone understands the risks involved with donating. Determining ever person is allowed to sell could mean doing a medical test as well as understanding the costs and benefits associated with the sale of their organ.
Of course, the idea of organ sale still feels quite wrong to some individuals. There are some arguments that it violates the integrity of the body and human dignity itself. Changing the rules on organ sale will take time but it is truly something that could happen legally in the near future.
