http://lifesharers.blogspot.com/2007/02/
should-age-determine-who-gets-kidney.html
Friday, February 16, 2007
Should age determine who gets a kidney transplant?
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Should age determine who gets a kidney transplant? That’s the question asked by the Chicago Tribune in a story about the United Network for Organ Sharing’s proposed changes to the rules it uses to allocate kidneys recovered from deceased donors.
UNOS has proposed allocating kidneys in a way that would maximize the number of extra years lived by kidney transplant recipients.
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No, money should.
If money in our pocket is a proxy for how much we have served our fellow human beings, (and if it isn’t, what is?), then we should harnass the free market to “solve” the transplant issues.
We should have a free market in human organs.
Ghoulish! No more so than the current system that makes some winners and others losers. It makes for great TV when Mickey Mantle gets a liver in violations of the “rules”. In organs, currently, it truly is a zero sum game.
See I have a secret plan.
Let’s say that kidneys go for 100k$ per pop, how long until some bright young scientist invents the artificial kidney that sells for 50k$ but only costs 25k$ making them wealthy. I’d bet not long.
Get the gooferment out of the organ business and we will have a plethora of “solutions”.
Leave people alone to make their own judgments.
I don’t care if a poor man wants to sell a kidney so that he can send his kid to college. I don’t care if women sell their eggs, so childless women can have babies. I don’t care if rich old men can spend millions buying a new hunk of liver every couple of years to prolong their life.
I DO care that people die while waiting for a transplant while on a gooferment list.
Don’t you see that a free market always clears. Supply always matches demand at a clearing price. Demand always matches supply at a clearing price. If you see shortages, look for the gooferment’s hand in it. Only force can prevent a market from clearing. And, only the government gets away with using force.
Lest you say that the poor would be precluded. Let me ask you this. Do you put coins in those counter collectors for poor starving animals? When some child needs surgery for a birth defect, doesn’t the community figure out how to make it happen? Car washes, bake sales, raffle tickets all for worthy causes. I’ve seen the vets sell “poppies”, the KofC peddle tootsie rolls, and the Lions with little white canes. VFDs pass the boot on the road side.
Trust me. No one will get left behind. Unlike the current system, where the gooferment let’s people die on waiting lists, and stifle any innovation.
And, think about all those perfectly good organs that get buried or cremated every day. Beloved Uncle Joe’s dead. His organs could pay for the funeral. Or send his niece to beauty school. Or, his nephew to LV. I’m not being crass. But, if a family knew that poor sweet Uncle Joe’s liver would pay for Niece Jody’s beauty school tuition, then I bet old Uncle Joe would be sliced and diced quicker than … well you get the idea.
An organ market place would:
(1) save the lives of people dying on gooferment lists;
(2) spark innovation for cost-effective alternatives;
(3) generate grass roots support for charitable donations for the needy;
(4) unleash a wave of organ donations that would clear the marketplace of any shortages; and
(5) allow people to make decisions about their bodies without gooferment interference.
So what’s stopping it? The gooferment.
Reinke Faces Life 
I agree there should be a free market in organs. But there isn’t. Until there is, LifeSharers is an excellent way to reduce the organ shortage. LifeSharers offers a good trade — donate your organs when you die, and in exchange you’ll increase your chances of getting a transplant if you ever need one to live.
I hope you’ll join LifeSharers. It’s free. It could save your life.
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