Selling a Kidney

By: Timothy Taylor

Narrated by: Timothy Taylor

Length: 31 mins

Publisher's summary

The discussion of forbidden transactions continues with a provocative look at the controversy over the buying and selling of human organs like kidneys or livers. No matter where you stand on the issue, this consideration of benefits and costs offers a fresh perspective from which to consider your views of medicine and longevity.

©2011 The Great Courses (P)2011 The Great Courses

A Fascinating Excerpt

Keeping in mind that this is just one lecture from what is ostensibly a whole series of lectures about unusual economics problems—what an intriguing presentation for an intriguing problem!

I’m always interested in the uncommon and sometimes impractical issues that exist in our lives, so perhaps this was just right up my alley and so I paid close attention. But I especially admired the easy conveyance of this topic in a way that the layperson could reasonably understand. It’s a very well-rounded, well-structured lecture.

As with all lecture formats, it’s a subjective experience, but I thoroughly enjoyed this. Glad I picked this up during the sale!

An Economist's Perspective

It's important to note that this whole lecture is given from the perspective of an economist. The moral and ethical consideration are set aside to look at the cost/benefits of allowing a market place for organ harvesting.

With that in mind, Dr. Taylor does a great job of vividly describing the medical and modern historical contexts of selling organs in the US. His background is thorough and his discussion of the economics is robust. Thirty minutes well spent.

4,500 people die each year waiting on a kidney

I certainly enjoyed this lecture and believe Timothy Taylor makes some good points and arguments for selling kidneys. Taylor provides an interesting theory of what the kidney selling business would be like.

Does not touch on essential ethic concerns

Selling body parts is a very dangerous perspective.. and needs to be approached very carefully, not with remarks of "yuckness" or the sort.
.. What if your wife or husband just disappeared because they were "harvested" for body parts.. and you wouldn't know anything of what happened. Her parts would just turn up on the market and you would never hear anything from it.
Or what if in very poor countries someone would make a "farm" for organs by raising children for forced donations..

The only acceptable setup would be to have express consent of the person and not just buy a "jar" with the organ on the internet just like you would buy a new TV. The ethics involved are much higher than eating horse meat.. at least based on current social ethics standards. I am sure that the an antic or medieval society would have no problem to set-up taking body parts from conquered peoples or slaves to improve their citizens health.. but I like to think that we have evolved as a society since then.
The silver lining is that any setup would need to be very very carefully arranged to not encourage abuses of human rights.