New York Times Organs Being Discarded = Fewer Transplants = More People Waiting or Dying

I saw this story from the New York Times which made me want to cringe in terms of how inefficient organ donation is. Many people are on waiting lists for organ donation. However, the problem is since there are more people wanting organs than those that donate there is a shortage which results in long wait times.  The reason there is a shortage is because people are not allowed to be compensated for voluntarily selling their organs. I noted in this post how more than 93,400 people are waiting for just a kidney. The chances of getting a kidney have decreased from 50% in 1992 to roughly 20% these days.

The NY Times story talks about how more than 2,600 kidneys are discarded (never transplanted). As a result 5,000 people will die just waiting. I almost fell out of my chair when I read this. This represents 18% of all kidneys (this figure has grown 76% over the past 10 years).  The pancreas has the highest percent chance of being discarded at close to 27% (14% overall for all organs). Part of the problem is the people in charge of the registry for transplants (Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients) uses outdated technology. They claim that if they only redesign their computer system the “could” add 10,000 years of life. The way they match kidneys doesn’t even make any sense. For instance, when matching kidneys the system doesn’t look at how the expected life of the person getting the kidney or how urgent the kidney really is. You would think you would want to transplant kidneys to younger patients (hence longer expected life span) than someone who is old and only has a few years left.

The underground market prices kidneys at $150,000-$200,000. Medical ethicist whackos worry about people murdering each other for body parts. If that were true more murders would occur now as the price if much higher than if it was legalized.  Nobel Laureate Gary Becker estimates at a price of $15,200 there would be enough kidneys to go around.  This would be actual cash people could use to pay down debt, send a kid to college, or buy something they always wanted.  I can’t believe the government can tell individuals what they can and can’t do with their body.  People sell hair, sperm, and even their minds to make money. As more transplants are done surgeons would not only get better at it but find better matches between donors and the recipient.  The current risk of dying from a kidney transplant is 0.1% which obviously would decrease if people were able to be compensated for their organs. Also a positive externality would be people would take better care of themselves. If the market rewards me for having pristine organs the way I can get the most for them is by preserving them in order to make sure I can get the highest price.

Politicians and bureaucrats pay no price for making people wait or die for organs transplants. To these “do-gooders” they are more concerned about making sure things are “fair”. Yet if these same people had a family member or loved one who was in need of an organ what do you think they would do?