Like most countries, the United States faces a shortage of organ donors, and the need for donation continues to exceed the number of organs available for transplant. Currently in the U.S. there are 118,617 persons on the national organ waiting list, with 96,645 waiting for a kidney transplant (National Kidney Foundation). With only 13,206 kidney transplant surgeries performed in the United States last year, it is easy to understand why MIT student Joanna MacKay stated, "If legalized and regulated, the sale of human organs would save lives" (96). .
It seems logical to assume that if individuals were offered financial incentives then they would be more willing to donate a kidney. However, incentivized donation could actually have the opposite effect. Political philosopher and professor at Harvard University, Michael J. Sandel, compared the blood donation system in the UK, where there is no monetary incentive to donate blood, and the United States, where there is one. He found that, when offered monetary incentives, fewer people gave blood (Sandel 74). This seems odd, but it changed the nature of blood donation from something one does out of goodwill into something that one gets be paid for. Those defending the legality of organ sales commonly underestimate the implications of allowing such measures. .
Furthermore, individuals should not be permitted to sell their kidneys because the incentive of money is an ethically unacceptable cost in return for meeting the demands of kidney transplantation. Human beings should not have the ability to give up their body, or certain parts of it to another person for that person's own benefit or utilization. By giving organs monetary value, it will inevitably result in individuals undesirably selling organs in order to maintain expectations and gain monetarily-and these individuals who are undesirably selling their organs will primarily stem from the poor, lower class population simply out of desperation.
