The question of why selling human organs is illegal is our paternal approach to protect the powerless.  How would we monitor the ethics of the process to ensure that donors were truly compliant and understood the risks?  There is great economic motivation to take advantage of people for their healthy organs.  By denying the sale of organs, the sick people in need of transplants are losing quality of life and eventually die, even though there are safe medical procedures for transplants.  Morally we have chosen to protect one set of people, the less fortunate, over those unfortunate people with health issues.  With a possible donor solution it seems unjust to deny those in need of a transplant.

There is an economic motive for the black market to develop since the demand for kidney organs exceeds supply.  The middleman is able to command the price for this rare organ, and pay very little to the organ donor.  “Havocscope, which monitors black markets, found last May that the average reported amount paid to kidney donors was $5,000, while the average price paid by recipients was $150,000.”  (Shulman 2012)  Those wealthy enough to afford the black market prices benefit have the choice of a transplant while others without the financial means must languish on a waiting list.  By trying to protect the powerless and deprived people through our laws we have created a black market which preys on those we intended to protect.

Reference:

Schulman, Miriam (April 2012) Kidneys for Sale: A Reconsideration, SCU  Retrieved from http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/medical/kidney-sale.html