The Market for Human Organs Sandra Abdelmalak Stephanie Chen Jenny Young

HOW would this market work?  Like markets for semen, human eggs, and surrogate wombs.  Free market  sales by living donors  sales of future interests in organs  to be removed on the death of the donors  sales of organs of a recently deceased person by the family of the deceased

In a market…  The demand curve is likely to be relatively inelastic.  The quantity supplied is more likely to be responsive to changes in price.

Why ISN’T there a market for organs already?  Uniform Anatomical Gift Act put the government in charge of organ transplantation  National Organ Transplant Act in 1984 banned the sale of human organs from either dead or living donors in the United States.

WHY is there a need for a market?

1.Limit of supply/SHORTAGE 2.Number of donors falling/lack of incentives 3.Eliminate black markets

 4,000 will die waiting  1,200 will become too sick and develop complications making it impossible to endure a transplant Kidneys neededKidneys transplantedRatio 75,00018,000  1/4

 according to a 2006 Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients report

According to the nonprofit United Network for Organ Sharing [UNOS]  Despite increases, an average of 15 people still die every day waiting for an organ ,38275,863 Number of women and children on the national organ transplantation waiting list ,0115,984 Cadaveric Donors ,9185,532 Living Donors according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HSS]

ISSUES with the market of organs

Ethical Issues  defining death  Organ allocation amongst patients  Organs for prisoners  religious controversy

Political Issues  exploiting the poor  benefiting the rich

Human Rights Issues  the danger of selling organs  using the organs of executed prisoners  who should be allowed to sell their organs

OTHER problems with a market

Organ Theft  Practice of illicitly removing/stealing people's organs via surgery or in their death for further purposes  Almost become a “spoil of war” for those in China, India, etc.  Many horror stories surrounding this.

Black Market  Why? Not enough supply to meet demand.  Illegal but is thriving  Huge demand for organs increases its prices  provide organs to wealthy, but it’s the poor who sell

Online human organ sales  Buyers and sellers who could reach mutually agreeable prices over internet could eliminate shortage – Steve Dasbach  More lives can be saved (hypothetically)  Banned, ex: eBAY

Reasons that the Market CAN Work!  In countries like India and Brazil, people sell their organs which generate a high demand. No one wants to sit on a hospital bed waiting when they can just BUY their ticket home!  Transplant Tourism

Reasons the Market Might NOT Work!  In January 2006, Iowa passed legislation allowing income-tax credit when donating  BUT! Only 13 percent of donors said an income- tax credit was a reason for their donations, according to a study from Canada's National Survey of Giving, Volunteering, and Participating.

Source:  Sally Satel, a psychiatrist and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute who received a kidney from a friend in 2006, says:

Source:  James Childress, professor of ethics at the University of Virginia and chairman of the Institute of Medicine committee that produced the 2006 report "Organ Donation: Opportunities for Action," says:

Source:  Francis Delmonico, professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and adviser to the World Health Organization on transplantation, says: