I Got Your Organ Right Here
Tonight's Law & Order SVU episode was a force-fed, but moving, exploration of the cruelty of federal laws prohibiting the selling of organs. Just like the Canadian healthcare system, this suppression of market forces leads to waiting lists, death, and jail time for those that violate the law. And just like the Canadian healthcare system, the U.S. ban on selling organs is based on a misguided egalitarianism.
After essentially warning people that buying organs for their dying children is "subject to fines and imprisonment", the Department of Health and Human Services' web site says that "among the reasons for this rule is the concern of Congress that buying and selling of organs might lead to inequitable access to donor organs with the wealthy having an unfair advantage." This, of course, is another way of saying that if the poor are going to die, the middle class and rich should die too. And the poor, along with the middle class and rich, do die. An estimated 17 Americans die each day waiting for an organ. Allowing families to sell the organs of their deceased loved ones would indisputably increase the number of organs available and save lives - 6,000 lives a year, in fact. Creating incentives for people to give up their organs would benefit the poor and rich alike.
I'm sure you have two questions.
1) Why did Law & Order SVU have an episode about organ selling, when the show is supposed to deal with sex crimes? I wish I knew.
2) Where can I find more about the need to legalize/decriminalize organ selling?
--Short Reason article by Ron Bailey.
--Answers to eight ethical objections to a market in organs.
--1995 Cato institute study that I haven't read. (PDF)
--On-line clearinghouse on the need for a market in organs.
I'm also intrigued that the libertarian take on this issue was the centerpiece of a Law & Order episode. No one could come away from the episode without thinking that legalizing the market for organs might be a good thing. This is a sign that - much like abolishing the draft, hating the IMF, and privatizing social security - "radical" libertarian ideas eventually become popular.
I can't wait for the Law & Order episode on the gold standard! A more urgent - and likely - episode would be one on why laws against prostitution do more harm than good.
After essentially warning people that buying organs for their dying children is "subject to fines and imprisonment", the Department of Health and Human Services' web site says that "among the reasons for this rule is the concern of Congress that buying and selling of organs might lead to inequitable access to donor organs with the wealthy having an unfair advantage." This, of course, is another way of saying that if the poor are going to die, the middle class and rich should die too. And the poor, along with the middle class and rich, do die. An estimated 17 Americans die each day waiting for an organ. Allowing families to sell the organs of their deceased loved ones would indisputably increase the number of organs available and save lives - 6,000 lives a year, in fact. Creating incentives for people to give up their organs would benefit the poor and rich alike.
I'm sure you have two questions.
1) Why did Law & Order SVU have an episode about organ selling, when the show is supposed to deal with sex crimes? I wish I knew.
2) Where can I find more about the need to legalize/decriminalize organ selling?
--Short Reason article by Ron Bailey.
--Answers to eight ethical objections to a market in organs.
--1995 Cato institute study that I haven't read. (PDF)
--On-line clearinghouse on the need for a market in organs.
I'm also intrigued that the libertarian take on this issue was the centerpiece of a Law & Order episode. No one could come away from the episode without thinking that legalizing the market for organs might be a good thing. This is a sign that - much like abolishing the draft, hating the IMF, and privatizing social security - "radical" libertarian ideas eventually become popular.
I can't wait for the Law & Order episode on the gold standard! A more urgent - and likely - episode would be one on why laws against prostitution do more harm than good.
posted by Cicero @ 9/06/2005
< Home>