On Why We Need a Market for Human Organs

Its been a while since I've blogged about the desperate need for a market solution to the issue of kidney donation. So I wanted to note this good opinion piece in the May 16 issue of the WSJ, by Sally Satel: "Why We need a Market for Human Organs". She makes many great points, and even responds to some critics by noting how such a regulated system could be put in place so that the poor would not be taken advantage of. In addition to the more fundamental philosphical arguments that one could give (e.g., we have a fundamental individual right to sell one of our kidney's if we want to), Satel's arguments and reasons are strong ones and hopefully will one day help to change policy on this issue.

As I've blogged on this subject a lot in the past, I've decided to gather the links to those postings in one place. So here they are, with the oldest ones last:

• The Need for an Organ Market (12/23/07)
• Repugnance Shouldn't Be a Standard (8/4/07)
• Market for Kidneys... Guess Where? (11/26/06)
• 10-person Domino Donation at Johns Hopkins (11/26/06)
• Sounds Good, But How About Really Helping? (10/29/06)
• Consequentialist Bioethicist is Proud of Efforts to Restrict Organ Donations (9/15/06)
• A Good Sign for Change to Organ Donation Policy (8/5/06)
• Equal Opportunity to Suffer and Die (6/18/06)
• Market for Organs (5/20/06)