Kidney for Sale by Owner: Human Organs, Transplantation, and the Market
Author(s): Mark J. Cherry (Author, Contributor)
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
Publication Date: 19 Mar. 2005
Language: English
Print length: 280 pages
ISBN-10: 158901040X
ISBN-13: 9781589010406
Book Description
During the past ten years over 4,600 people have died annually in the United States while waiting for organ transplants. In 2003, 83,000 patients waited for transplantation–but only 20,000 patients received them. While everyone seems to agree that this is a national tragedy, bold initiatives to address the problem–such as creating a fee-based and regulated market for organ transplantation–have been fiercely rejected by the federal government and the medical community. But why? If most Americans accept the notion that the market is the most efficient means to distribute resources, why should body parts be exempt? Bioethicist Mark Cherry contends that not only is the market a legitimate means to distribute body parts, but that this approach is actually more just–and more compatible with many Western religious and philosophical traditions–than the current charity-based system now in place. Cherry carefully examines arguments against a market for body parts, made by such figures as John Locke and Immanuel Kant and Thomas Aquinas, and shows these claims to be steeped in myth, oversimplification, and bad logic. Taking his cue from the philosopher Robert Nozick, Cherry contends that in regard to body parts such core values as equality, liberty, altruism, social solidarity, human dignity, and, ultimately, improved health care are more successfully supported by a market rather than through its prohibition. Rather than focus on the purported human exploitation and “moral repugnance” of selling organs, he says, we should focus on saving lives.
Editorial Reviews
Review
A comprehensive, balanced review of the philosophical and practical aspects of adopting a market-driven system for organ sales. Transplantation professionals, bioethicists, and the public will find Kidney for Sale by Owner invaluable for framing discussions of this complicated topic. . . . This book challenges our current views on the commercialism of organ donation and argues that from an ethical, medical, and societal viewpoint, the current prohibition of organ sales may cause more harm than good.
Kidney for Sale by Owner is a remarkable book-insightful, scholarly, and beautifully argued.
Kidney for Sale by Owner is a tour de force, demonstrating both philosophical acumen, insight and scholarly care. This is how bioethics should be done! Moreover-and more soberly–given the number of people who die while waiting for a transplant, and the greater number who suffer while waiting, Kidney for Sale by Owner is long overdue. With luck it will be read not just by philosophers, but also by medical professionals and the framers of public policy.
Accessible and would be of interest to the casual reader, while retaining sufficient analytical depth to be relevant to the ethical or transplant professional.
About the Author
Mark J. Cherry is the Dr. Patricia A. Hayes Professor in Applied Ethics and professor of philosophy at St. Edward’s University, Austin, Texas. He is editor of The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, associate senior editor of Christian Bioethics, and editor-in-chief of HealthCare Ethics Committee Forum. He is coeditor of the book series The Annals of Bioethics and editor of the book series Philosophical Studies in Contemporary Culture.
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