Black Markets: The Supply and Demand of Body Parts

Description

In America, in direct response to indefinite delays on the national transplantation waitlists and an inadequate supply of organs, a growing number of terminally ill Americans are turning to international underground markets and coordinators or brokers for organs. Chinese inmates on death-row and the economically disadvantaged in India and Brazil are the often compromised co-participants in the private negotiation process, which occurs outside the legal process - or in the shadows of law. These individuals supply kidneys and other organs for Americans and other Westerners willing to shop and pay in the private process. This book contends that exclusive reliance on the present altruistic tissue and organ procurement processes in the United States is not only rife with problems, but also improvident. The author explores how the altruistic approach leads to a 'black market' of organs being harvested from Third World individuals as well as compelled donations from children and incompetent persons.

Michele Goodwin is the Everett Fraser Professor in Law at the University of Minnesota. She holds joint appointments at the University of Minnesota Medical School and the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. Prior to teaching law, Goodwin was a Gilder-Lehrman postdoctoral fellow at Yale University, Connecticut. She serves on the editorial boards of several journals, including Law and Social Inquiry and the Harvard/Stanford/Duke Journal of Law and the Biosciences. She is the author or editor of four books and more than sixty articles and book chapters. Her editorials and commentaries have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Forbes, Gene Watch, Christian Science Monitor, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Houston Chronicle, Chicago Sun Times, and the Washington Post. She is a columnist for "The Conversation" at the Chronicle of Higher Education.

'Black Markets is a fascinating look at an issue fraught with social, ethical, and legal challenges. Michele Goodwin is an academic, and her work reads as such, with a plethora of sources and statistics to back up her assertions ... Black Markets is a useful addition to any academic law library's collection on health care law.' Stephanie Karnosh, Reference Librarian, McMillan LLP