People openly sell blood, hair, sperm, eggs, virginity and, on many black markets, organs.
PopSci.com, a companion site to Popular Science, questioned numerous organ-trafficking researchers to determine the price for organs that a person could live without. Apparently most humans can live a full life without: a lung, all of their intestines, an eye, part of the liver and one kidney.
Many organs are donated at time of death decreasing their value, and in the United States, it is ‘illegal’ to sell organs but the biggest market seems to be for kidneys.
The price of a kidney seems to be based on location: India: $20,000 (€14,750) China: $40, 000 (€29,500) Israel: $160,000 (€118,000).
eBay and Craigslist had postings where people attempted to sell kidneys: the offers ranged from $100,000 (€73,440) plus medical expenses and to bids of $5.75 million (€3.78 million). Both sites removed the postings. The market could get a lot more interesting once the US Congress decides on the Organ Trafficking Prohibition Act of 2009 as it would allow payment to organ donors.
UPDATE: A new ruling has lifted a portion of the ban to benefit sick children who need bone marrow transplants to survive.
MoreMarrowDonors.org plans to offer donors USD 3,000 ‘awards’ — such as scholarships or housing allowances, because bone marrow is classified as an organ that can’t be legally bought or sold under the National Organ Transplant Act, according to the Courthouse News Service on December 1.
The process to donate marrow, known as apheresis, has become akin to donating blood. “The main difference between an ordinary blood donation and apheresis is that instead of just filling up a plastic bag with whole blood, the donor sits for some hours in a recliner while the blood passes through the apheresis machine,” Judge Andrew Kleinfeld wrote for the Pasadena-based panel.