Should we legalize the organ trade market?

It is commonly well-known either from books, TV shows/movies or real-life experiences that demand for the amount of life-saving organs far outweighs the available supply. There are infamous ‘waiting lists’ that people are placed on and wait sometimes years to miraculously find a match for them. Patients die if they don’t have a family member ready and able to give up their ‘spare’ kidney, as the main alternative way for someone to have a transplant is for someone to say they want to donate their organs when they die, and this can come with its complications (age, health factors, blood type, etc). Around 75,000 Americans are waiting on a kidney transplant this year but only 18,000 will get them (24%). This means that 76% of those 75,000 will die or live on dialysis, simply because there aren’t enough organs to go around. Theoretically, the organ market wouldn’t be as necessary as thousands more transplant candidates might be saved if more Americans signed organ donation cards, more families consented to the donation of their loved one's organs, and medical personnel approached the families of potential donors more often. But, it isn’t enough.  

Sally Satel (Psychiatrist and Professor, at Columbia University) said that the majority of people need an increased incentive to give up their organ or second kidney, therefore those who are willing to save a life and give a kidney to a stranger should be compensated. There is of course the black market, and sadly many patients are left with no choice but to go down that route for the sake of their own lives, yet those kidneys/organs are more times than not illegally and unethically sourced and pose unknown health risks. The black market needs to be shut down, and Amy Friedman said the only way to eliminate the demand for the black market and improve the safety of donors and recipients is to develop a legal and regulated mechanism for donor compensation. The United States could save $12 billion a year in tax revenue in addition to eliminating the kidney waiting list if a comparable legal kidney market were established, paying donors $45,000.  

Yet making the buying and selling of organs legal would likely lead to a society where only the rich would be able to access lifesaving organ transplants and the poor would be the main contributors of those organs. The US system wards this inequality with the previously mentioned ‘first come first served waiting list’. Therefore, regardless of their financial situation, they will have the same chance of receiving the transplant as the next. The introduction of an organ market as such creates an exploitative dynamic between the wealthy and poor, and those who are poor end up selling their organs often not for the fully deserved price. The main one who would benefit is the ‘middleman’ who buys the organ from the poor and then triples the price to sell to the rich. The rich portray the idea of organ selling as a basic human freedom, but only the poor make use of this 'privilege'. The selling of organs would be unlikely to occur if there were no impoverished people in Pakistan or the Philippines or enslaved "workers". And this market introduction is not a solution for those financially in need as people cannot escape poverty through the sale of their organs. People sell their kidneys in Pakistani and Indian bazaars to pay off debts, yet average family incomes are falling by a third, more people are living in poverty, and 86% of respondents say their health is getting worse. The only parties that stand to gain financially from the kidney's journey from vendor to recipient are the previously mentioned middlemen, which include wealthy health insurance firms in the Middle East and the West, hospitals, transplant surgeons, organ brokers, and government officials. The legalization of organ sales also puts wealthy individuals in danger.  

Overall, briefly looking at the pros and cons are difficult to weigh in for the proposed idea of a legal organ market. The monetary rewards for organs result in a disadvantage for the poor yet the compensation of donors is an ‘easy’ way to drastically increase the number of donated organs, potentially saving thousands of lives. It is clear however that there must be changes made to the organ donation system as it reigns ineffective as it stands. 

I hope you enjoyed reading this weeks entry! Feel free to check out my other blogs by clicking the 'Blogs' section on the top of the page :)