On Rock Center with Brian Williams there was a
story about a young girl named Jordan Flynn who suffers from fanconi anemia
an incurable disease that requires the patient to have a bone marrow
transplant. People like Jordan not only suffer but thousands of people die
every year because they can’t find a bone marrow donor.
Currently due to a 1984 law (National Organ Transplant Law)
it is against the law to be compensated for organs. “Do-gooders” like Michael
Boo of the National Marrow Donor Program worry that compensation would make
donating bone marrow unsafe because people may not disclose all their
information. Mr. Boo needs to first take an economics course to realize that compensation
will not only lead to more bone marrow but higher quality bone marrow. If
people were paid for bone marrow based on the quality they would have every
incentive to make sure they were donating the highest quality so they could get
the most money (being self interested can work wonders). Also companies could
be created to check the quality of the bone marrow before it was used. In
addition to this the process would improve which over time would reduce the
risk and make it safer. Also this could lead to new discoveries in other areas
as well given most things are discovered by accident.
Data shows that only 2% of the entire population is on the
national registry for bone marrow. One problem is that people can back out at
any time and face no penalty. If people were paid a few thousand dollars they
might be more willing to roll up their sleeves and let the blood flow out and
money flow into their bank account.
It is bizarre why people would object to selling bone marrow
when people sell things like sperm, hair, eggs, and essentially rent other body
parts. Of course politicians and “do-gooders” pay no price for the harm done.
Innocent people are in pain and may die because of a law that essentially doesn’t
even benefit anyone. Is there anyone who has been saved or helped because of
the 1984 National Organ Transplant Act?
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