Legalizing Organ Sales

This article appeared onSubStack on May 25, 2023.Organ sales are illegal in the United States and most other countries (Iran is a  partial exception). The National Organ Transplantation Act of 1984states, “it shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly acquire, receive, or otherwise transfer any human organ for valuable consideration for use in human transplantation if the transfer affects interstate commerce.” The penalty for breaking the law is a fine of $50,000 or up to five years in prison , or both.In Libertarian Land, organ markets are legal. This makes everyone better off.Consider first kidneys. People have two but can live normally with one. If the kidney market were legal, a  person whose kidneys fail could purchase from a willing seller, and both could then live healthy lives.The seller would risk that their remaining kidney might cease to function, but in a  legal market, the supply of kidneys would be large and the price low, so such persons could likely buy a kidney from some future seller.The situation is similar forliver transplants; recipients need only a  partial transplant, and the donor’s remaining liver regenerates.What about more extreme cases, where someone wants to sell a  heart or other vital organ?Such behavior might sound irrational, but imagine an aging parent in poor health (unrelated to their heart) who could earn a  large sum by, in effect, committing suicide and selling their heart. The income might make it possible for that per...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs