The Real “Consequences” of Legalizing Organ Sales
For decades, generations have been hesitant to modernize. Whether it involves fashion, culture, healthcare, or even racial integration, society tends to reject anything that indicates reformation. Due to this, a taboo is trademarked on to the organ donation market; moreover, this taboo is engraved because it is currently illegal in the United States. The Black Market is an illegal system that makes profit over immoral businesses. These include things like human trafficking, children, and drugs. But, selling organs to those who need it is not among these immoral things. While compensation is a huge benefit of organ donation, the ultimate reward would be saving someone's life. According to Anthony …show more content…
Many people believe the misconception that if organs have a price-point, it will disadvantage the poor from an organ they need to survive. According to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), just for a kidney alone it's $67,500 for the transplant (Andrew V & Block, 2011). Thus, organ donation has a high price point already, and this is due to the lack of organs in the market. If there was an abundance of organs, like legalizing organ sales, this would prevent competitive sales. Although organs are simply donated, they are processed through UNOS, and people are prioritized by age, health, and past medical history. There are thousands of people waiting for an organ to save their lives, but only few to hand out. This causes a high demand; thus, a high demand causes a high price. While some of the price issues derive from the actual surgery, it is mostly for the actual value of the organ itself. Overall, if organ sales were legalized, the price would decrease heavily since there would not be such a high demand with no product. While the price-point would not be super cheap, it would still be enough to provide adequate compensation to the donor without draining the recipient/recipient's …show more content…
These of which include things like organ rejection consequences, faulty organs, death, insurance, etc. Dr. Sally Satel, a organ recipient and resident scholar of the American Enterprise Institute, thought of an interesting solution to these faults in the legalization. Richard Knox notes an important quote from one of Dr. Satel’s speeches, " ...we need to be able to compensate people who are willing to give a kidney to a stranger, to save a life. ... We are not talking about a classic commercial free-for-all, or a free market, or an eBay system. We're talking about a third-party payer.”(2008) She explains further that organ donation would still be seen as a humanitarian act, but compensation could be funded into a 401k plan, or other retirement plans rather than direct deposit. This solution would provide time for the money to be fully distributed without breaking the bank all at once. But, what third party would this come from? An insurance agency? Would a specialized field need to be created for this? These are legalities that would be further handled by the government, and would provide a successful market in helping those in need. With government regulation, the organ market has the potential to become one of the largest businesses in America; consequently, the growth of this market means thousands of lives are being