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I am often asked by
students in my classes to address certain goods and services that are illegal
to consume in America, but perhaps should be legal. Of course, when this question - from my
mostly teenaged audience comes up, they expect me to dive into drugs, gambling
and other vices.
“If a stranger
approached you on the street today and offered you $50,000 for one of your
healthy kidneys, would you accept their offer?”
My students find this
to be an odd way to begin a discussion of government interference in the
marketplace, but they end up learning about a law that has helped ruin the
lives of countless Americans.
30 years ago Congressman
Al Gore offered up a bill that made the buying and selling of human organs
punishable by up to five years in prison or a large fine. The bill became law in 1984 and with its
passage the official price of all of the organs in our body equaled zero dollars.
Of course, as we
learned in the former Soviet Union, “official prices” and market prices are two
entirely different things. We also
learned that when official prices (set by government) are below market prices
it is inevitable that shortages and black markets will emerge.According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, as of September 27th, there were 119,115 Americans on the national waiting list for transplantable organs. Data from the Health Resources and Services Administration reveals that of that figure, 97,896 people on the national list are waiting for kidney transplants. Moreover, the data reveals that 18 people die every day in America while waiting for an organ transplant.
It does not have to
be this way.
Relying on moral suasion to get people to donate organs is not working. When offered zero dollars for our body parts, rational humans often opt to hang on to our organs rather than do the morally-right thing and donate them.
But what if, for
example, you could contract to sell your organs after you die, or in the case
of kidneys, while you are alive?
Imagine your life
insurance carrier offering you an extra $100,000 in coverage for your organs
when you perish. Your benefactors would
be better off, as would the insurance company who sells them for say, $150,000
to hospitals in the area. The hospitals
in turn sell them for $200,000 to various patients who would be willing and
able to pay.
How many people, if
given the choice of waiting and suffering in the hope they find a kidney would
buy one for several thousand dollars if they were given the opportunity to do
so? How many people – enticed by money –
would gladly offer their organs up for sale?
It is not hard to imagine, given the far greater deaths than there are
people waiting for organs, a large surplus that would emerge fairly quickly,
suppressing prices and helping even more people afford a chance to survive.
In the case of
kidneys, doctors tell us we only need one to live a normal life. As a free human being I should be allowed to
part with one of my kidneys while I am alive for any price I find
agreeable. After all, women can sell
their eggs to help create life. What is
the difference then, if I sell my kidney to save a life?
In 2011, after a
series of court challenges by a woman whose daughters suffered from Fanconi anemia,
the federal government legalized the selling of bone marrow. People are now allowed to earn $3,000 in the
form of vouchers for things like housing and education as an enticement to help
save lives.
Unfortunately, for
the tens of thousands of other sufferers there is no end in sight to the
violation of their rights to offer compensation for kidneys and other
organs.
The time has come to
end this suffering by allowing the forces of supply and demand to work.
