Richard Epstein's Thinking The Unthinkable: Organ Sales

Richard A. Epstein’s “Thinking the Unthinkable: Organ Sales” (2005) is an argument trying to convince people that selling human organs is acceptable in order to increase the availability for those in need of an organ transplant. Epstein says money will motivate more people to donate their organs to those in need. He also looks at the argument from the point of the recipient of the organ and argues that the expense of buying an organ will not increase the price of getting an organ transplant.

Obviously, people who are rich already have an easier time getting an organ transplant. The rich can more easily afford the costs; the poor will not have any more of a cost disadvantage than they already have. Epstein gives these reasons to support his

He says that “confusion and pressure in combination rarely justify banning a practice with lifesaving potential” (Epstein, 2005, p. 104). Epstein thinks that allowing people to sell their organs would be a better way of getting people to donate instead of pressuring them. Consider the illustration where an organ donor a match to give their family member a liver, but the organ donor was hesitating to give the organ up. If the organ donor was compensated with money, this compensation would be putting a price-tag on his family member’s human life. Suppose this same organ donor would only give up their organ if he or she was compensated with a certain dollar amount. This dollar amount would be the worth of the family member to the organ donor. This situation is an immoral one to put an organ donor of a family member in. Humans have never been given the right to put a price-tag on someone’s life. If price-tagging a human life was to occur and the patient knew about the dollar amount, the relationship between the donor and the patient would be ruined. How could anyone hesitate, if given the opportunity to save another’s life, especially that of a loved one? Donating an organ is the opportunity to make a difference in the world, not to decide someone’s

He wants to let people know he realizes that the rich are more able to afford good medical treatment immediately. He thinks selling organs will not change the unfairness in any way, so it really should not be taken into consideration. The fact of the matter is that the rich will be more able to obtain an organ than the poor if the organ costs money. According to the Donate Life website (2003), which is made available by the government, “the computerized matching system does not select recipients based on fame or wealth. Organs are matched by blood and tissue typing, organ size, medical urgency, waiting time, and geographic location.” This information about how a match is made between a donor’s organ and a patient is important because tissue type, organ size, and blood type will always be taken into consideration when finding an organ to give to another person because otherwise the recipient’s body could reject it. Other details taken into consideration when finding a match would diminish in importance though, if money was exchanged for an organ. For example, medical urgency would not be as important if someone who was in less need of a transplant had more money than someone who urgently needed the same organ. The wealthy person may have access to enough money on the spot or may be willing to pay more for the