This argument shows the necessity of organ markets to increase supply, while suggesting justice demands better options for sellers.
The world faces an organ shortage, resulting in thousands of deaths each year. By allowing organ markets, we could increase the supply of organs, thereby saving many lives and enriching many organ sellers. One defence of organ markets points out that by prohibiting them, we are taking away what would-be organ sellers regard as their best option, and we thus doom them to stay in their dire circumstances. However, we should not take away what people regard as their best option, and hence we should not prohibit organ markets. Andreas Albersen claims this argument fails because justice requires we offer would-be organ sellers an even better option. However, I show that organ markets are always the best option.
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Perry Hendricks (2025) studied this question.
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