Trading Organs

Very interesting free lunchtime movie today: Iranian Kidney Bargain Sale.

It's a short documentary about kidney donation/sale in Iran, where selling a kidney is legal and managed by state agencies. It follows two people who are planning to donate their kidneys, and two who need transplants.

Donors are paid a set amount by the state, but are free to negotiate with the would-be recipient for additional payments once they've been matched by the agency. It's very disquieting to watch the bargaining, but also very sympathetic.

The people making the donations are desperate for money, and they're giving up a part of their body. Obviously they want to get as much money as they can for it.

And the people who need transplants are going to die without this, so they'll pay as much as they can, but they're not rich either. Obviously they're desperate to bargain the price down to where they can afford to stay alive (or keep their friends/family members alive: transplants for both the donors we meet are being supported by others).

How can you put a price on your daughter's life? You'd pay everything you could find to pay.

And why would you agree to undergo surgery and give up an organ to a stranger for money (and these people are perfectly clear that it wouldn't have occurred to them to do this if not for the money) if it didn't even pay off your debts?

There's something deeply disturbing about buying and selling organs. At the same time, it keeps people alive, gives people in bad financial situations a chance to get some money. Is it wrong?

The mere fact that we have to mention "bad financial situations" makes it clear that it's problematic: these people are hardly making unconstrained choices. On the other hand, neither is anyone who takes a sucky job because they don't have better options, and we tell people to suck it up and work sucky jobs if that's what it takes to get by, right?

Do people own their organs? If so, should they be allowed to dispose of them as they see fit?

And is it worse that the recipients can offer money above the amount established by the state?

That obviously makes it less equitable, since if a donor is lucky enough to be matched with a well-off recipient he or she can presumably make more than otherwise, and if a person who needs a transplant has enough money, they're presumably basically set (we don't see these circumstances, but I'm assuming it, based on the information given).

But if that encourages more people to donate...

You just want everything to work out for these people. Shiva and Said need kidneys. Mehrdad and Sohaila need money. They're all adults who understand what they're doing.

All well and good?

I don't know. Fascinating film, though.

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