Question

The hospitals, doctors, insurance companies and others profit from kidney transplants. But donors are prohibited from doing so. Should it be legal for a person to “profit” from the sale of one of their kidneys? Why or why not? Between three and four thousand people die every year because a transplant donor is unavailable. What would happen to the supply of kidney transplant donors if the sale of kidneys was legalized?

Answer 1

According to our social culture blood donation, kidney donation and such works are considered as noble works and cannot be compared with any amount of money. That is probably the main reason behind no profit attitude to such issues. An ill effect of this attitude is the occurrence of less interest among general people towards these works.

If we think in terms of necessity, kidney transplant is very much necessary for many patients to survive. Depending on its necessity if sale of kidneys is legalized, more people who are fit enough to sell kidney will willingly give their kidneys causing wellbeing of many patients. Thus availability of kidney donors will increase causing betterment of the society.

One may point out an obvious drawback of legalization of sale of kidneys is that only rich people will be able to buy this as of high cost and demand whereas poor people may not be able to fulfil their necessities. But according to my opinion, this mismatch of ability between rich and poor occurs in all field and we should not stop the legalization process merely for such issue as positive impact of legalization is very high. Further government can take initiative to help poor in this aspect.