Compensate Donors for Giving Their Organs

My letter to the editor in today’s Washington Post:

The Feb. 24 front-page article “New kidney transplant rules would favor younger patients” reported on a proposal to modify the transplant distribution system. It would evaluate the worth of the 110,000 Americans who need a kidney in terms of quality-of-life years. This favors the young at the expense of the elderly and dehumanizes the very people who need others to show their humanity. The proposal would also fail to solve the chronic shortages caused by current organ policy.

Compensating organ donors would give more people an incentive to give — thereby increasing the supply and saving lives. While the idea of selling one’s organs is not a subject broached in polite conversation, it is certainly fairer than this new proposal. It deserves proper consideration.

Jacqueline Otto, Washington

The writer is a research associate at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.