This would create great resentment in poor countries, while not being that huge a source of revenue.
That seems odd. They don’t have to sell their organs to foreigners. You could make laws about only doing it within the country. I’d be against that, for much the same reasons as I’m against all protectionist policies.
That seems odd. They don’t have to sell their organs to foreigners.
Perhaps it would be odd for the particular people who are selling their organs to feel resentment. But it doesn’t seem all that odd if people in poor countries who need organ transplants feel resentful that the organs which would otherwise be harvested from cadavers and given to them are instead being bought up by rich foreigners.
The big supply change from organ markets is incentivizing things like kidney or marrow donations from living donors. Those donations would not be made otherwise (and the overwhelming majority of organs of the dead are of far worse quality, since people tend to be old and sick when they die, and sudden causes of death like car accidents have a tendency to wreck the body).
In places where getting a $25 microloan is a big competitive advantage, a $5000 organ donation would be absolutely disruptive (according to this article kidneys go for anywhere from $20,000 to hundreds of thousands depending on country). If you were an entrepreneur in such a country you would basically never be able to compete with anyone else who donated organs without donating one yourself. That could definitely cause a lot of resentment.
In places where getting a $25 microloan is a big competitive advantage
I think this is an exaggeration. The severely poor are demarcated as earning less than $1 per day.
There are many millions of migrant workers from poor countries working in richer countries, e.g. Somalian taxi drivers in New York, Bangladeshi janitors in Dubai, and so forth. They make many thousands of dollars per year. They send remittances, and sometimes come home. This doesn’t seem to cause terrible resentments or anger. Rather, the money significantly boosts the standard of living back home, allowing the purchase of more imports and raising wages for local workers (paid out of the remittances and by the returnees).
That seems odd. They don’t have to sell their organs to foreigners. You could make laws about only doing it within the country. I’d be against that, for much the same reasons as I’m against all protectionist policies.
Perhaps it would be odd for the particular people who are selling their organs to feel resentment. But it doesn’t seem all that odd if people in poor countries who need organ transplants feel resentful that the organs which would otherwise be harvested from cadavers and given to them are instead being bought up by rich foreigners.
The big supply change from organ markets is incentivizing things like kidney or marrow donations from living donors. Those donations would not be made otherwise (and the overwhelming majority of organs of the dead are of far worse quality, since people tend to be old and sick when they die, and sudden causes of death like car accidents have a tendency to wreck the body).
I could see ways in which it would be disastrous.
In places where getting a $25 microloan is a big competitive advantage, a $5000 organ donation would be absolutely disruptive (according to this article kidneys go for anywhere from $20,000 to hundreds of thousands depending on country). If you were an entrepreneur in such a country you would basically never be able to compete with anyone else who donated organs without donating one yourself. That could definitely cause a lot of resentment.
I think this is an exaggeration. The severely poor are demarcated as earning less than $1 per day.
There are many millions of migrant workers from poor countries working in richer countries, e.g. Somalian taxi drivers in New York, Bangladeshi janitors in Dubai, and so forth. They make many thousands of dollars per year. They send remittances, and sometimes come home. This doesn’t seem to cause terrible resentments or anger. Rather, the money significantly boosts the standard of living back home, allowing the purchase of more imports and raising wages for local workers (paid out of the remittances and by the returnees).
More disasterous than someone dying? Is there going to be hundreds of people resenting per donation?
Kidneys are worth $2,000 to $4,000 in Iran, according to this article. They are illegal to sell in any other country.