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Can Individual Health Be a Commodity for Sale? The Quest for an Open Organ Market

June 20, 2014

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Ongoing shortage of organs has led to many innovative ideas including using extended criteria organs and organs from donors after cardiac death (DCD). While over 55,000 patients are on the waiting list for organ transplant, around 4000 die annually before they can receive lifesaving transplantation. Recently, there has been contesting voices within the transplant community advocating donating organs from living individuals for monetary gain i.e. “selling organs”. The aim of this paper is to discuss selling organs in an open market from a Christian world view. This will be discussed under three headings briefly: non maleficence, benevolence, and autonomy. It is concerning that within the transplant community and legislators in the U.S.A. there have been some advocacy for organ donation in exchange for monetary gain. Enticing people by money to sell their own health as a commodity defies non maleficence, benevolence, and even autonomy.

Keywords:
Transplantation; Altruism; Commodification; Policy change; Donor match; Incentives; Organ supply; Donor swap; Medical tourism; Prisoner donation