Legalize Trade in Human Organs - The Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights

Legalize Trade in Human Organs
By David Holcberg (Chicago Tribune, November 29, 2006; Baltimore Sun, December 7, 2006; Austin American-Statesman, March 9, 2007; International Herald Tribune, April 4, 2007; The Independent, UK, July 27, 2007)

Thousands die every year waiting for transplants because the National Organ Transplant Act forbids the sale of human organs. But people should have the right to harvest and sell their organs.

If the law recognizes our right to give away an organ, it should also recognize our right to sell an organ. As long as there is no coercion involved, the government should respect and protect this right.

Those who can afford to buy organs would benefit at no one's expense but their own. Those unable to pay would still be able to rely on charity, as they do today.

If the government upheld the rights of potential buyers and sellers of organs, many of the 90,000 people now waiting for organs would be spared hideous suffering and an early death. How many? There is only one way to find out: Set these people free.

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