- how the federal ban on profit incentive is killing those awaiting organ transplants
Barry White died on July 4, 2003 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre, Los Angeles. He suffered kidney failure from years of high blood pressure. White was on the kidney transplant waiting list and had been in the hospital since September 2002. He was 58 years old.
In New York, a Grisly Traffic in Body Parts When the supply is forcibly decreased and demand remains the same, predictible consequences result... - Michael Powell and David Segal, January 28, 2006 [Washington Post]
Death-Row Privilege Condemned Prisoner May Get Kidney Transplant While Law-Abiding Citizens Wait. - Bryan Robinson, May 28, 2004 [ABCNews.com]
Organ Donations, Egalitarian Envy, and the High Cost of Busybodies I happen to know a lady who was born with three kidneys -- and in poverty. Do you think she would have minded parting with a spare kidney, in order to have a better life for herself and her children? With more than 80,000 people on waiting lists for various organs, and many dying while waiting, why prevent such transactions? One reason is that third parties would be offended. - Thomas Sowell, December 2, 2003 [Capitalism Magazine]
Death Toll Still Rising The current system is one in which the government manages the supply of organs by a system of regional nonprofit monopolies which are suppose to seek out permission to obtain the vital organs of accident and stroke victims. - Mark Thornton, August 13, 2002 [Mises]
Waiting for Transplants When Congress passed the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984, authored by then Sen. Al Gore of Tennessee, it was supposed to solve the chronic and deadly shortages. Like many other acts of Congress, this one has failed to solve the problem, and has actually made things worse. - William L. Anderson and Andy Barnett, April 1999 [Mises]
Spare Parts On June 6, 1995, Mickey Mantle’s doctor said the Baseball Hall of Famer, whose liver had been severely damaged by hepatitis, cancer, and decades of heavy drinking, would need a transplant. Two days later, he got one. Since the median wait for a liver transplant ranges from four months to a year (depending on blood type), many people thought Mantle’s expedited operation smacked of favoritism. - Jacob Sullum, March 17, 1999 [REASON]
Rationing of transplantable organs; a troubled lineup While many feel that the distribution of organs is too important to be left to market forces, ultimately, it is too important not to be. - Charles T. Carlstrom and Christy D. Rollow, Fall 1997 [CATO]
I’ll Give You My Heart… And please, for life and for liberty, start a discussion with your friends about market-oriented approaches to the allocation of scarce health resources. - Stephanie R. Murphy, January 1, 2005 [LewRockwell.com]
Doctors Perform First Organ Transplant Brokered Via Commercial Web Site Bob Hickey, who lives in a mountain town near Vail, had needed a transplant since 1999 because of kidney disease but had grown tired of being on the national waiting list. - Melissa Trujillo and Laura Meckler, October 21, 2004 [AP]
Organ donors are getting the shaft If you're an organ donor, don't let the organ allocation system give you the shaft. Join LifeSharers. Help yourself, and your fellow organ donors, get a fair shake. - Dave Undis, April 28, 2004 [Rational Review]
Organ Donations: Socialism or Laissez-Faire? Loni Wells is desperately ill. The 20-year-old Canadian is among the nearly 3,000 Canadians who require a kidney transplant each year. - Adam Young, January 19, 2004 [Mises]
Communitarianism and Commodification Those who speak of "commodification," which apparently has become a buzzword in socialist circles, actually have things backwards. The presence of a price upon a good does not make it scarce; rather, it is the scarcity that creates the price. - William Anderson, March 11, 2003 [Mises]
New Legal Organ Market Uncle Sam’s death penalty on people waiting for an organ transplant was imposed over 6,000 times last year. It will eventually claim half of the 85,000 people now on the transplant waiting list and half of the 35,000 people who will join the list this year. A new free market in human organs offers these people hope. - Dave Undis, September 3, 2002 [Strike the Root]
Let the Market Save Lives Currently, an estimated 79,000 people are awaiting organ transplants that will potentially save their lives. Every day, on average, sixteen of these men, women, and children die waiting for their transplant. Sadly, the simple, lifesaving solution to this tragedy has been deemed illegal for eighteen years now. That solution is to allow a free market for organs and body parts. - Douglas Carey, February 22, 2002 [Mises]
The Case for Selling Human Organs The normal way to handle shortages is to let prices rise to the market-clearing price. - Ronald Bailey, April 18, 2001 [REASON]
Organ Donation: Incentives Could Save Lives Human life is priceless, but economic incentives could help save the lives of thousands of Michigan citizens who are in desperate need of organ transplants. - David Bardallis, October 4, 1999 [Mackinac Center for Public Policy]
Organ Grinders The federal government's idea of "fairness" may exacerbate an already deadly organ shortage. - James V. DeLong, November 1998 [REASON]
A Free Market in Human Organs The liver transplant performed on former baseball great Mickey Mantle last year gives us an opportunity to review and challenge the statist notion that it is perfectly fine for an individual to donate a human organ to another person but sinister and evil, not to mention illegal, to sell it for profit. - Ron Brown, February 1996 [The Future of Freedom Foundation]
Books
The U.S. Organ Procurement System: A Prescription for Reform - David L. Kaserman, A. H. Barnett, Graham H. Flegg
