Ethical Arguments For Organ Transplantation
The topic of organ transplantation market raises ethical questions regarding the value of human life and the idea of commodifying human organs. Sally Satel on The Organ Donation podcast by EconTalk provided an interesting insight into the transplantation market discourse in the United States. In America, there are approximately 98,000 people on the waiting list for kidneys, but only five thousand are donated annually (Roberts, 2017). Correspondingly, as people wait for kidneys to become available, they receive dialysis treatment which accounts for 6 percent of the annual health budget (Roberts, 2017). Therefore, to solve the ongoing problem of kidney shortages, there is an argument for creating organ transplantation market, where people would
be able to sell and buy kidneys.
In this essay, I will make an argument favoring the organ transplantation market because it will decrease the number of people waiting to receive kidneys and may improve the quality of lives for donors and recipients. Utilizing the free market model, it may be reasonable to suggest that people would donate kidneys for financial incentives, which will expand the organ transplantation market and create an affordable price for everyone (Hippen, 2006).