Evaluate what would happen if it was legal to have a market for body organs.

Karol below was to answer this question:  Did she address? Do you have any additional insight into incentives, benefits and cost?—- It is largely believed that it is unethical to have a money exchange for body organs, it is illegal in almost every country in the world. However, the result of the donation only approach is that there is a waiting list for people who need transplants. Evaluate what would happen if it was legal to have a market for body organs. Think very carefully and rigorously about the incentives, benefits and costs of the current system and how that would change in a market system.

Word Count 200 Cite appropriate examples/principles from the texts reading above Cowen and Tabarrok and supplementary research and Bible Scripture.  Knowledge, communication and research, critical thinking, business application, and biblical reference.

Karol response: About five years ago, I watched a movie called Repo Men.  The movie was about a company that sold artificial organs on credit. The short description is if the recipients defaulted on payments, they were killed, and the organs were retrieved.  The movie is a glimpse of what I think a marketing of organs could resemble without some form of restriction.  The pricing of organs presents one of the many challenges.   A benefit is increased need for specialized services for organ storage and transport.  The compensation as well as the incentives provided for organs can be favorably structured to assist in the cost of transplants.   According to organdonor.gov, there are organs that can be donated while people are alive.  These organs should hold more value than organs from people who died.  The organs from deceased persons can also be incentivized prior to death under contractual agreements.  The other challenge is to place emphasis on valuing life and organs rather than commercializing human life.  There should be higher incentives for a living person’s organs to deter unethical activity over organs from deceased persons.  I foresee a greater need for government intervention with policies to flush out corruption. The structuring of an organ market would give a boost of income to the advertising and marketing industry for cases of urgency for transplant.  There would be a growth in physician services as in the plastic surgery industry.   The  market effects of the converting from donation of organs to the selling of organs is not totally realized due to the human reaction in the long run