Issue 520 Selling organs Post-mortem February 4, 2015

So at current most countries in the world make it illegal to sell organs (with Iran being the only exception with Kidneys).  But what if you yourself could not profit off of said organs?  What if the money went to your family instead?  Let us discuss.

Concept:  While many people are squeamish about selling organs, our bodies’ parts are worth a lot of money.  The reason why many people are against the profit motivation is because they think it hurts the idea that people voluntarily give organs away to the sick, and that to profit off selling your body in this way is just in poor taste.  So what if we lose the profit for the seller, and instead make it a beneficiary that profits instead?  Basically the person who volunteers to be an organ donor can check a box which would allow his/her organs to be sold at market value after death with a beneficiary(s) being able to reap in the money.  The beneficiary(s) of course would not know they would get money upon the individual's death from selling the body parts until the after the death of that individual.  Obviously the purpose of this is to protect the post mortem seller, and to enable the dead person to give at least one last financial gift to their family or other individuals.

Purpose:  Basically, many families struggle after the death of a loved one, and that may include financial struggle as well.  By allowing the organs to be sold to hospitals, charities or even to universities for either study or donation, the family of the individual benefits.  Also, recipients of the organs benefit as they can bypass waiting lists which would insure survival of many more people in need of an organ transplant.  Obviously, to protect from corruption and sale directly to individuals, only universities, hospitals and licensed charities could buy them and then trade them among themselves to insure the organ is used to benefit someone or science as a whole.  As such, less waste of both time and effort as organizations actively seek to buy and give organs to those who need them.

Conclusion:  While the premise of the idea is simple, in practice there are many obstacles.  For one, if an organ can be used for a transplant, can we guarantee it will not be used for science instead?  Will this increase the cost of organ transplants?  Is there a method in this that allows the transplants to pay for themselves? Also, does this method leave the poor without a chance of getting a transplant themselves?  And finally, the question of getting world governments to agree to this scheme.  There is much to be worked out, and yet no immediate answers.  So for now this is simply a thought experiment.