10-person Domino Donation at Johns Hopkins

I heard about this recently, and then was pleased to see Virginia Postrel commenting on the amazing 10-person "domino donation" performed at Johns Hopkins. This is amazing for many reasons. It is great to see this occur, to see five people's lives get saved in the process, and so on. But it is also amazing, because it amounts to a superb indictment -- a reductio ad absurdem -- of the current policies and laws that make it illegal for donors (or their families) to benefit financially from donating a kidney (either while living or upon death). If we had a regulated market for kidney donation, then the long and growing -- and utterly inhumane -- waiting list for kidney transplants would rapidly shrink, and without the need for 4, 6, or 10-person groupings of donors and recipients just in order to save lives and reduce suffering. As great as the 10-person donation story is, it shouldn't have been necessary!

Another great post on this topic from Virginia followed that one. She ends with this nice paragraph:

Most kidney patients--and the friends and relatives from whom they're likely to get organs--are of relatively modest means. Prohibiting organ sales doesn't "help the poor." It hurts poor kidney patients, by keeping them on dialysis and shortening their lives. It hurts poor relatives of kidney patients, by forcing them to choose between saving their loved ones and taking financial and health hits. It hurts poor, healthy would-be donors by depriving them of economic opportunity. If you don't want poor people to sell their kidneys, give donors with big income tax breaks or college-loan forgiveness, so that only the affluent will get the money. Let Ivy League grads sell their kidneys instead of their eggs. But don't just prohibit compensation.