The latest panel of IGM Economists on Kidney Sales:
General agreement, but I’m a little surprised that it wasn’t as universal as it could be -- A lot of uncertainty. The normal economic analysis seems to be poor people and sick people trading to make the poor less poor and the sick less sick. Of course there are exceptions, a few horror stories to make the news, but the broad and life changing gains pretty clearly outweigh the costs.
As always the comments are interesting.
One common cause of skepticism is of a moral nature.
Would improve allocative efficiency but means- and health-conditioned vouchers would presumably have to be used to address ethical concerns.
A market with or without subsidies for low income patients?
That would mean valuing people's lives by their incomes. We already do that but moving further in that direction seems wrong.
If you wanted to say that it should be paired with subsidies for low income, then that’s reasonable, whether or not it is right. What I have trouble understanding is why it must be paired with low income subsidies in order for it to be right. Why should the rich sick have to stay sick? When people say it “seems wrong” to get in between a willing informed buyer and a willing informed seller, nobody cares. “Seems wrong” arguments keep poor people poor and sick people sick needlessly. Not thinking an issue through to assess outcomes for people who seriously need help also seems wrong.
Consider this, there is a magic fountain where rich people can throw their money and new kidneys will magically appear. Should you ban the use of this fountain?
Also consider, we find out that a poor person is born with a large sum of money inside the kidney that he will almost definitely never ever use for the rest of his life. He wants to have surgery to remove this kidney and receive the money. Should we ban the poor person from having surgery to remove his own kidney? Before you answer, consider this, we already allow poor people to donate their kidneys for absolutely free! Only this way, the poor person actually gets something in return!
