Organs For Sale?

Being an organ donor, to me, is one of the most selfless things a person can do.  It is also very easy.  All you have to do is sign up on when you get your license.  It's cool that something so easy can save someones life.  Selling organs, on the other hand, is completely different.  Although there are some ethical issues that come to mind when thinking about organ selling, I believe that people should have the right to sell their organs.  According to this article (http://ww.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v1n2/kidneys.html) written by Claire Andre and Manuel Velasquez, for every 100,000 transplant operations needed each year, only 10,000 are performed.  This shows us that there is a high demand for organs, but not enough given up for transplanting.  This is where the right to sell an organ could be crucial.  If people are allowed to sell organs, the gap would be closed between organ transplants needed and organ transplants that actually happen.  

Currently, people are allowed to sell their bodies in many different ways.  Pornography is an obvious example of this.  A person can also sell their plasma and sperm as a way to make money.  I don't see why selling an organ would be much different than any of these.  

After reading Martin Wilkinson's article in BBC News (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-10786211), I found that we have a similar stance on the issue.  For most people, whether it is good or bad, making money is very important.  Offering money for an organ is probably the best way to make the demand meet the supply.  I thought it was interesting that when Iran gave compensation to kidney donors, the supply surpassed the demand.  I think if the U.S. did something similar to Iran, we could see the same effect.  Almost everything Wilkinson said in his article was paralleled with my opinions.  In the end, I am not saying that I would sell an organ, but many people in the country would be interested in making money any way they can, and in turn could save many lives.