More on kidney sales

Following my previous post in defense of Iraqi Kidney sales, the issue has arisen in the United States and Israel. According to the Wall Street Journal,

Federal agents swept across New Jersey and New York on Thursday, charging 44 people — including mayors, rabbis and even one alleged trafficker in human kidneys — in a decadelong investigation into public corruption and international money laundering.

The article continues,

The probe includes a bizarre sideshow: the alleged trafficking of human kidneys, a lucrative, illegal industry and not one that’s typically showcased alongside political shenanigans.

In the course of the investigation last year, Mr. Dwek [a real-estate developer who became an informant after being arrested on bank-fraud charges in 2006] came into contact with an alleged organ trafficker, Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, and told him Mr. Dwek’s uncle needed a new kidney, according to court papers. The two men discussed how Mr. Dwek would pay a $160,000 fee to buy a kidney from a donor in Israel, documents show. According to the complaint, Mr. Rosenbaum described himself as a “matchmaker.”

I will not advocate breaking the law, but I will advocate making the law consistent with both freedom and societal circumstances. When a black market develops, whether in organ sales, drugs or the like, it is generally a mark of inconsistency between society and its laws. Often the black market itself becomes more dangerous than the trade the government originally outlawed. This is the case with most black markets –drugs and organ sales included.

Consider if this was a true story, as is often the case. What if Mr. Dwek really did need a kidney to save his uncle’s life? If all partners in the transaction–the kidney donor, Mr. Rosenbaum, Mr. Dwek, and Mr. Dwek’s uncle– voluntarily entered the transaction, there should be no objections. No coercion would have been used and everyone would have taken part in the transaction to gain something, in some cases health in others profit. In the end, however, everyone should be contempt otherwise they would not have entered the transaction in first place.  This being the case, the government has no right to intervene.

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