Market for Human Organs

Joe Weisenthal has written an article on Business Insider, titled ‘It’s Time for A Market in Human Organ’ on 5^th July 2009 and I couldn’t help but to write what I understood from what he wrote. Organ transplantation is one of the biggest glories in the history of today’s modern medicine. But it is an unfortunate and miracle tragically that the transplants can’t be done to thousands of people who looking for easing pain and life-saving. 
 

It has become common in medicine to transplant kidneys, lungs, livers, pancreas and hearts from individuals who are deceased to those who have failed or failing organs. But surgeon and many patients are facing a growing problem which is shortages of donated organs available for transplant. Steve Jobs, co-founder and former CEO of Apple Inc., has put his name on the list of few states to get a liver transplant has put a reminder to us of how horribly broken the system is. Not everyone who needs a transplant can get one. There just are not enough of organs to go around. In the year 2009, there were over 100,000 people in the United States who were on the waiting list for transplants. On previous year, 28,000 transplants were performed and 49,000 patients were added to the waiting list. The wait grows deadlier as the list grows longer. An insufficient supply of donated organs has caused an estimated 6000 deaths in the United States each year while awaiting the organs that could have kept them alive or prolong their lives. 

 

Before we proceed with the article, we should understand what shortages really meant. Shortage in economics’ term is the occurrence of when quantity for the good demanded exceeds the quantity of the good supplied when the price is fixed at certain point. The supply or stocks in the market are too few to meet the demanders’ wants. A shortage of donated organs means patients may not get a transplant when they need one. At this point, some of us may think and start asking ourselves, what is the difference between shortage of manufactured goods or services in market and organs for transplant? Well, my answer is organs are not something that can be produced, and thus no such legal market exists for it. 

 

If there were a market for human organs, the demand curve would be shown as downward slope (D1): the quantity demanded for organs would be higher at lower prices or vice-versa. There is no producer for producing human organs, they are donated via consent before or near death, so they are represented by a vertical supply curve (S1) showing the fixed quantity of human organs at zero price (P0). The shortage (Q2 - Q1) is rationed through a waiting list of those who are in need of medical transplants. Many people will die while waiting for transplant.

  

Human always expect something in return after they performed their services or sold any goods. No one wants to perform services for free. If there is law that prohibited any valuable consideration for healing the sick, there would be fewer doctors which will then lead more sickness and death. 
  

A market for human organs would increase the incentive of donors to donate organs. For such market, individual would specify a legal document  that he is willing to sell organ(s) upon or near his death. The money will either go to family, charity, welfare institution, etc.  Some firms would then agree to purchase from those who willing to sell their organs and resell them to those who need transplant for profit. Under this system, the new supply curve (S2) would take on the typical upward supply curves. If the price of the organs are expected to be high, there would be many people who willing to have to sell their organs at new price (P1) near their death. The number of organs would be made for transplants will be at Q3. This will then create market equilibrium (E1). Shortage can then be eliminated which will bring means of saving more people life.

 

  But why there is no such market for human organs? Few objections to organ markets have been highlighted and why they are all so hollow. Firstly, a market in organs would discourage altruistic donors. The word ‘altruistic’ here refers to the act of showing unselfish concern for others. Some people are never honest in what they donate unless their soul is noble enough to show that they are care and concern for who those who really need it. Organ donation after death is only altruistic, since the cost to you, as a dead person, is basically nothing. True altruists are those who donate their organs while they are still living. Secondly, I couldn’t agree more that market in organs would devalue human life. Turning human organs into commodities, commercializes or a better word I would suggest – spoil, and diminishes the nature of human life. Critics had voiced out that it is inappropriate about selling and buying organs as if they were corn or wheat. Moreover, market would only give out the organs to people who can afford them or have health insurance. Those who are poor or uninsured will be left out.
  

 Third objection: markets failure can expose the worst of greed in human behavior. The financial crisis can disabuse people of their faith in the markets. Greed and reckless people always exist no matter what system we are in, there’s always people who are desperate. Then, there will black market in human organs. As more people demand for transplants, black market will emerge to sell organs to people who need transplant at price they are willing and able to pay. Not only that: I also presume that crime rate will most likely to be increased: kidnapping and abductions of person on the street to collect the organs from the victims. Besides that, market organs would hurt the poor, who would most likely be influenced or driven into selling organs. Health-cost objection has suggested that, a market for body organs would greatly increase the cost of health care. Rather than obtaining organs that are freely donated, patients or their insurance companies would need to pay market prices for them. This will then increase the cost of medical care.

  

Posted by Amir Faisal.