Tuesday, October 24, 2017

More debate about legalizing kidney sales

There's nothing new in this debate, but here is more on compensating kidney donors.  As far as I can see, the weakest argument against compensating donors is that the illegal black markets for kidneys work badly...

From Gizmodo:
Should You Be Allowed to Sell Your Kidney?

Gabe Danovitch, a distinguished transplant nephrologist and an active opponent of compensation for donors, is quoted saying this about markets:
"Any attempt at so-called regulating… a market, by definition, is not regulated. Markets don’t like regulations. Let’s say we were to allow a regulated market, and a donor would get $30,000. I’m just throwing this out. Why wouldn’t Singapore say you can get 50? In Doha you can get 80? And why wouldn’t the donors go around the world to get the best price? If we were to do that in the United States, it would be a disaster."

This argument strikes me as strange: is the problem with compensating donors  that it might open up competition for American transplant centers??

Danovitch also makes an argument that, as a nephrologist who evaluates potential donors, he couldn't trust them as much if they were getting paid.
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On a related matter, this from the LA Times
'Kidney for sale': Iran has a legal market for the organs, but the system doesn't always work

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