Why Shouldn’t You Be Allowed To Sell Your Bone Marrow?
Via Mark Perry, a great segment on NBC last night about bone marrow and the fact that it’s illegal for donors to be compensated for the lengthy and painful process required to donate some to somebody else.
It’s illegal to receive compensation for bone marrow per the National Organ Transplant Act in 1984 (sponsored by Al Gore and Orrin Hatch), but that doesn’t make sense. Setting aside for a moment the debate over donors being compensated for their organs, bone marrow regenerates much like blood and plasma for which people receive compensation.
Allowing for compensation for donors would make more bone marrow available for those who need it, which in turn would ease more suffering and save more lives.
Usually when this subject comes up opponents launch themselves into a sort of high moral dudgeon, attacking the morality of compensating donors. But how moral is it to let people suffer, to let people die, for want of a policy that would make organ/tissue donations more plentiful?
Tags: al gore, bone marrow, organ donation, orrin hatch
