# Paying for organs **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 24, 2010, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-for-organs/561825 "2010-11-24T23:19:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Laudenum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Laudenum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laudenum)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-for-organs/561825/1 "2010-11-24T23:19:35Z")
Right or wrong? On the one hand, there is a shortage of organs available. On the other hand, having poor people seriously compromise their health for a quick bit of money doesn’t seem right. ---
**Author:** ![Commissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c68b51/32.png) [@Commissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commissar)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-for-organs/561825/2 "2010-11-24T23:42:35Z")
> [@Laudenum](#): > > Right or wrong? > > On the one hand, there is a shortage of organs available. > > On the other hand, having poor people seriously compromise their health for a quick bit of money doesn’t seem right. As you point out, good points can be made in support of either side of the argument. Personally, I would prefer a much simpler, more efficient, and humane solution: mandatory organ harvesting following death (circumstances permitting). ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-for-organs/561825/3 "2010-11-24T23:49:25Z")
Organs are an integral part of the church experience. If they don’t pay for organs how will they have such beautiful music. ---
**Author:** ![Sateryn76](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Sateryn76](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sateryn76)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-for-organs/561825/4 "2010-11-24T23:59:16Z")
I don’t care about either point you raised… My organs are my own, and I can’t see how the government/society should have any say about what I can do with my own organs. So, I suppose that means no forced harvesting nor any prohibitions against selling them. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-for-organs/561825/5 "2010-11-25T01:51:21Z")
> [@Sateryn76](#): > > I don’t care about either point you raised… > > My organs are my own, and I can’t see how the government/society should have any say about what I can do with my own organs. > > So, I suppose that means no forced harvesting nor any prohibitions against selling them. Huh? I can see your argument against banning sale while alive (though I think there are a few gaps in it) but in what sense are your organs your when you are dead? Dead people don’t own things. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-for-organs/561825/6 "2010-11-25T02:02:15Z")
Ever read [_The Jigsaw Man_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jigsaw_Man), a short story by Larry Niven? ---
**Author:** ![Sateryn76](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Sateryn76](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sateryn76)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-for-organs/561825/7 "2010-11-25T02:04:55Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > Huh? I can see your argument against banning sale while alive (though I think there are a few gaps in it) but in what sense are your organs your when you are dead? Dead people don’t own things. So, your body becomes property of the state/society? If anything, it becomes property of your heirs, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-for-organs/561825/8 "2010-11-25T02:13:46Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Ever read [_The Jigsaw Man_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jigsaw_Man), a short story by Larry Niven? Or _Caught in the Organ Draft_, by Robert Silverberg ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-for-organs/561825/9 "2010-11-25T02:31:14Z")
Let’s take a quick, basic look. There are plenty of organs, and people will offer them readily if allowed to be paiod. Paid-for organs are not going to be radically mroe expensive than otherwise int he finaly tally, and we’d suddenly have no shortage. Moreover, the compensation is fundamentally sane. Organ transplantation is risky, botha t the time of surgery and later. I certainly won’t do it because I value my life and dont’ want to abandon such family as I may have if the worst happens. With a payment, I have a much more concrete reason to act. And other nations have instituted this without problems. For once, Iran and Venezuela are ahead of us. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-for-organs/561825/10 "2010-11-25T02:37:16Z")
> [@Sateryn76](#): > > So, your body becomes property of the state/society? If anything, it becomes property of your heirs, I suppose. Why assume that property exists in a human body? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-for-organs/561825/11 "2010-11-25T02:48:22Z")
Paying for organs?! Gee, I usually have to pay people to **take** mine . . . ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-for-organs/561825/12 "2010-11-25T02:51:45Z")
Banning the sale of organs is a form of price control, which causes shortages and surpluses. In this case, it causes a quite fatal shortage of life-saving organs. It makes no sense at all for the government to mandate a price of zero for a highly sought after and scarce good that benefits society immensely. Basically, if you actually want _more_ organs going to _more_ sick patients, you need an organ market to create the incentive. If you want to stick to some sort of luddite morality while watching people die needlessly while waiting for organs, you have a warped sense of priority to say the least. I disagree with price controls in general, but this is one of the most egregious examples of how terrible the effects can be. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-for-organs/561825/13 "2010-11-25T03:00:34Z")
In the same vein, here’s an idea to solve all our health care problems in this country: Just create a law banning the sale of medicine or medical services! Doctors and pharmaceutical companies really shouldn’t be motivated by profits anyway, but by the goodness of their hearts, right? Just make it illegal for doctors and pharmacists to demand payment for their goods and services! Poor people will have no problem getting quality health care now that it is free, right? Greed will be abolished from the health care industry! There’s no way this plan can go wrong! ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-for-organs/561825/14 "2010-11-25T03:11:09Z")
> [@Commissar](#): > > As you point out, good points can be made in support of either side of the argument. Personally, I would prefer a much simpler, more efficient, and humane solution: mandatory organ harvesting following death (circumstances permitting). I agree. The State protects us all during life - building roads, infrastructure, police and military forces, and so on. It’s only appropriate that, when we are done with our bodies, the State should use them to protect others. ---
**Author:** ![ExcitedIdiot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ea5d25/32.png) [@ExcitedIdiot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExcitedIdiot)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-for-organs/561825/15 "2010-11-25T03:14:39Z")
People are allowed to risk their lives for money in plenty of other ways. I can choose to be a commercial fisherman, or a fireman. I don’t understand what’s wrong with selling organs. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-for-organs/561825/16 "2010-11-25T03:16:10Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > Banning the sale of organs is a form of price control, which causes shortages and surpluses. In this case, it causes a quite fatal shortage of life-saving organs. It makes no sense at all for the government to mandate a price of zero for a highly sought after and scarce good that benefits society immensely. The only reason that this could be justified is over concerns that people’s organs could be harvested without their informed consent. But then, we have people wanting to harvest organs without consent _right now_, so that’s rather a moot point. My off-the-cuff answer is that the sale of organs could be permitted with sufficient government oversight, but _only_ for cash (to the donor or to their estate). And the harvesting of organs without the consent of the donor should carry the death penalty. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-for-organs/561825/17 "2010-11-25T04:56:34Z")
Well, it does. For the donor. Am I the only one that things an open market for organs is just too, too tacky? ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-for-organs/561825/18 "2010-11-25T06:59:39Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Am I the only one that things an open market for organs is just too, too tacky? Yes. We don’t make things illegal just because they’re _tacky_. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-for-organs/561825/19 "2010-11-25T13:03:51Z")
How would an open market affect things like [War crimes in the Kosovo War - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_theft_in_Kosovo)? ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-for-organs/561825/20 "2010-11-25T13:28:48Z")
> [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](#): > > How would an open market affect things like > [War crimes in the Kosovo War - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organ_theft_in_Kosovo)? Have you even read that page? EULEX found no evidence that the claim was true, and their attempts to collect evidence from the person who made the claim came up empty. It’s indistinguishable from blood libel. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paying-for-organs/561825.md?page=2)