OPENING UP THE ORGAN MARKET:

OPENING UP THE ORGAN MARKET: Jonah Goldberg makes the case for a free market solution to organ transplants. He writes:

The ethics committee of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons endorsed a pilot program that will permit the families of deceased donors to receive some small compensation for an organ donation.

The move was made reluctantly, in the face of a longstanding organ shortage in the United States. As of this February, 79,523 people were on the waiting list for major organs, which is worse than this time last year. Meanwhile, only 22,593 organs were transplanted in 2001.

A decade ago, there were only roughly 20,000 people on the waiting list. Meanwhile, experts agree that in the future, the demand for transplantable organs will only increase. In other words, it’s a bad problem that promises only to get worse unless things change dramatically.