Each year thousands of people die because their kidneys fail and they are unable to get a transplant. The problem is that the policy of creating a private market in kidneys creates shortages. In today's newspapers, an interesting AP article appeared. It reported that:
Israeli man: I sold kidney, got $20,000 after surgeryby Carla K. Johnson and Adam Goldman - Aug. 19, 2009 12:00 AMAssociated Press
NEW YORK - In 2005, a rebellious and sporadically employed Israeli man flew to New York to give up a kidney to save an American businessman. For that, he said he was paid $20,000, which appeared in a brown envelope on his hospital bed after the operation.
That payoff would be illegal. But the kidney donor, 39-year-old Nick Rosen of Tel Aviv, said that doesn't matter. "I smoke pot. That's also against the law."
What is quite incredible is the price -- $20,000. When a kidney was auctioned on ebay, the price reached about $5 million before the government forbid the auction. With a larger supply, the price would decline. It has been estimated that the price would be in the hundreds, not the thousands or millions of dollars. Think of the lives that would be saved.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Terry Anderson, one of the authors of the Aug. 2009 ASET book club made the comment in relation to another government induced shortage:
ReplyDeleteThe government can never outlaw or legislate demand. The evidence is overwhelming - Prohibition, The current War on Drugs or War on Immigration are clear reflections of the failure of Leviathan to outlaw or regulate demand.
This case shows the futility of regulating supply - elementary economics and intuition anticipate this result.
As Boyes points out, the results here are tragic, as they always are. The deaths that result from shortages is an unintended consequence (we hope) of the failed effort to outlaw or legislate demand or supply.
More pernicious is the infringement on property rights. The most fundamental property right is the right to self. Regulating, limiting or outlawing the ability to transact with my body including selling an organ, the ultimate infringement on liberty and the grossest example of power by Leviathan.