If that becomes a problem, have the government check to make sure that the people who are listed as selling kidneys both gave permission...
How would the government achieve this in practice ? For example, let’s say there’s a demand for livers this month. How would the government know whether the liver A for patient B came from a legitimate donor, some unfortunate homeless person within our country who was robbed of his liver against his will, or from some foreign national who lives in one of those totalitarian and/or lawless countries where human life isn’t worth much ?
Furthermore, let’s say that people could sell their organs after they die—by proxy, presumably—as per your scenario above. Doesn’t this create a powerful incentive for unscrupulous agents to speed their demise ?
Also, even if that was the only way the organ market worked, for every organ stolen there’d be a life saved.
I don’t think this is true. Firstly, organ transplant procedures do not have a 100% success rate, due to rejection issues, surgery complications, etc. Secondly, what do you mean by “a life saved” ? All lives will end eventually. Would it be worthwhile to shorten someone’s life by, say, 10 years (due to their loss of a kidney), in order to grant someone else 5 extra years of life (by using that kidney) ?
How would the government know whether the liver A for patient B came from a legitimate donor, some unfortunate homeless person within our country who was robbed of his liver against his will, or from some foreign national who lives in one of those totalitarian and/or lawless countries where human life isn’t worth much ?
If it didn’t come from a legitimate donor, either the doctor has to explain why he didn’t say who the donor was, why the donor doesn’t know about it, or why the “donor” still has a whole liver.
As for the foreign country, just don’t accept organs shipped across national lines if the other nation doesn’t check the stuff. I suspect it’s a bad idea to ship organs across national lines anyway, as opposed to just shipping the donor, but I don’t really know all that much about how organ donation works.
Would it be worthwhile to shorten someone’s life by, say, 10 years (due to their loss of a kidney), in order to grant someone else 5 extra years of life (by using that kidney) ?
No, but I’m willing to bet that’s not what the ratio will be. If losing an organ hurt you more than it helped the person getting it, nobody would ever consider donating them.
Edit:
Furthermore, let’s say that people could sell their organs after they die—by proxy, presumably—as per your scenario above. Doesn’t this create a powerful incentive for unscrupulous agents to speed their demise ?
You mean their next of kin? I don’t see how it’s much more of an incentive than it would be to kill them just for the inheritance. Also, I suspect that the health insurance company would normally take the money, since most people aren’t going to be in a position to donate their organs and people tend to be loss-averse.
How would the government achieve this in practice ? For example, let’s say there’s a demand for livers this month. How would the government know whether the liver A for patient B came from a legitimate donor, some unfortunate homeless person within our country who was robbed of his liver against his will, or from some foreign national who lives in one of those totalitarian and/or lawless countries where human life isn’t worth much ?
Furthermore, let’s say that people could sell their organs after they die—by proxy, presumably—as per your scenario above. Doesn’t this create a powerful incentive for unscrupulous agents to speed their demise ?
I don’t think this is true. Firstly, organ transplant procedures do not have a 100% success rate, due to rejection issues, surgery complications, etc. Secondly, what do you mean by “a life saved” ? All lives will end eventually. Would it be worthwhile to shorten someone’s life by, say, 10 years (due to their loss of a kidney), in order to grant someone else 5 extra years of life (by using that kidney) ?
If it didn’t come from a legitimate donor, either the doctor has to explain why he didn’t say who the donor was, why the donor doesn’t know about it, or why the “donor” still has a whole liver.
As for the foreign country, just don’t accept organs shipped across national lines if the other nation doesn’t check the stuff. I suspect it’s a bad idea to ship organs across national lines anyway, as opposed to just shipping the donor, but I don’t really know all that much about how organ donation works.
No, but I’m willing to bet that’s not what the ratio will be. If losing an organ hurt you more than it helped the person getting it, nobody would ever consider donating them.
Edit:
You mean their next of kin? I don’t see how it’s much more of an incentive than it would be to kill them just for the inheritance. Also, I suspect that the health insurance company would normally take the money, since most people aren’t going to be in a position to donate their organs and people tend to be loss-averse.