Bone marrow donation and compensation: My moral dilemma

It’s a criminal offense to pay a person to donate an organ. That policy fits well with societal norms that restrict commerce in certain areas. For example we don’t allow people to sell themselves into slavery. We certainly don’t want people to be coerced for financial reasons to sell their organs and endanger their lives. And yet, arguments for paying for organ donation exist. People die all the time for lack of a suitable organ available for transplant. Is it right to interfere with their pursuit of life, health and happiness by restricting how people use their wealth? And of course doctors and hospitals charge for their services in performing transplants, so it’s not as though there isn’t money changing hands. The issue has come to the fore again recently, with the federal government’s proposal to ban compensation for bone marrow collected in a less invasive manner. This one touches a nerve for me, because a couple years ago I made a decision not to follow through as a bone marrow donor even after I had been told that I had matched with a patient. More on that in a moment. Compensation for bone marrow donors has long been banned as part of the National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA), which defines bone marrow as an organ. That made sense in a way because extraction of bone marrow is fairly invasive and somewhat risky. But, according to MedPage Today: Under a method called peripheral blood cell apheresis, donors receive injections to stimulat...
Source: Health Business Blog - Category: Health Managers Authors: Tags: Patients bone marrow donor Source Type: blogs