Body futures: the case against marketing human organs

Creation of a market for the buying and selling of human organs for transplantation, even if it did allow supply to match demand, would be a serious mistake. Even if the market were fairly constructed, it might not dramatically increase the supply of transplantable organs, since donations likely would decrease if selling were allowed. Such a market would create a relative disadvantage for the poor, who would feel disproportionately greater pressure to sell their organs than would the wealthy. The possibility of realizing a profit from the organs of the dead could provide an incentive for murder or for doing less than we might to save lives. An organ market, where parts of a person are viewed as commodities, could lead to a general cheapening and coarsening of human relationships. Any organ selling system would create an economic relationship between buyer and seller, rather than a charitable one, raising quality control problems. The economic system, would drive out the volunteer donor system, sapping the altruistic bond that draws people together. Finally, an organ market presents a metaphysical threat in that it demeans our bodies to the status of articles to trade. An alternative to the current voluntary donor system and an organ market is to presume passive consent to organ donation with the right to informed refusal. Unless a record of the decedent's opposition to organ removal exists, the next of kin objects on being informed of the intent to remove organs, or the decedent was a member of a group known to oppose organ removal, we should presume a person's willingness to donate organs after death to save another person's life.