How Free-Market Kidney Sales Can Save Lives - And Lower the Total Cost of Kidney Transplants

"The recent conviction of a New York man for brokering the sale of black-market kidneys has economists and the general public alike rethinking the 1984 National Organ Transplant Act. This law prohibits the free trade of human organs, including, according to President Obama's Department of Justice (DOJ), bone marrow. However, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously in Doreen Flynn at al. v. Holder that bone marrow donors could be compensated. Part of their reasoning involved the idea that if the government's argument (against compensation) were upheld, then the 1984 law "would prohibit compensating blood donors." The Obama Justice Department is now seeking a hearing by the full Ninth Circuit. What is the DOJ's argument? That bone marrow should not be subject to "market forces" because the resulting price of bone marrow would undermine voluntary donations and price many prospective recipients in need of transplants out of life-saving operations."