Would You Sell Your Extra Kidney?

January 5, 2023

(Wired) – I, admittedly, would once have found the commodification of kidneys objectionable. I tend to distrust the use of markets as tools for solving morally messy problems, and so I am surprised to find myself defending the idea. But my brother’s ordeal nudged me toward this perspective: It’s easy to endorse a policy that benefits you and those you love. What’s more, frequent exposure to the world of medicine disabused me of ideas I once held about the human body enshrining some magic core. All the palpations, the proddings and pokings, the intrusions, the needles and plastic sample cups and bandages and alienating vocabulary, the doctors talking to you as if you’re half there or to each other as if you’re not there at all. On some level, we’re just finely wired machines to be fixed. (Read More)