> Mark, > > I assume you mean that individuals who sell their organs in good health will > then change their behavior to harm the organs. > > First, I don't think this would happen. As an idividual you still bear the > costs of damaging your organs. Also, this can be solved with yearly checkups > with exit clauses in contracts that pay out in installments. This also makes > the organs of religious groups that disallow drinking and smoking more > valuable. Their commitment to good health is more credible than others.
This, of course, increases transaction cost, but certainly not enough to exceed the gains from trade. But I still believe you would have an adverse selection problem--those from whom you would least like to have a donated organ would be the most likely to sell theirs. Religious groups, of all sectors, would seem to have the greatest restrictions against selling their organs. I am not convinced, however, that any of these would thwart a viable market--insurance companies would certainly find it in their interest to overcome such problems. > > Second, wealth and health are positively ocrrelated. The increased wealth > from pre-sale of organs will likely increase the health of the donor and > organs. We're talking probably a few thousand dollars, conceivably $50k or so (competition would drive it down fast), not enough to make life-altering changes in habits. Maybe it would improve the life of any children, but again, only marginally. > > On Jason's point of the difficulty of pricing organs due to risk. > > I don't think this is a problem. Insurance companies make such calculations > all the time to assign premiums. Agreed. My biggest con against a market for organs that I bring up in class as I discuss this is that you create the incentive for people to kill others whose bodies are more valuable dead than alive. In the U.S. we could handle much like life insurance, if you are in any way involved in the killing of someone to whom you are a beneficiary, you not only go to jail, you cannot collect. This cannot extend outside of our borders however. The Chinese, for example, are known to kill political prisoners and then sell their organs. > > JC >
