Black Markets: The Supply and Demand of Body Parts

by Michele Goodwin

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 brokers for organs. Offering a contemporary view of organ and tissue supply and demand, Michele Goodwin explores the legal, racial and social nuances of current altruistic institutionalized procurement schemes. It is understandably not publicized that Chinese inmates sitting on death row and the economically disadvantaged in India and Brazil are the most often compromised co-participants in the negotiation process and supply kidney and other organs for Americans as well as other Westerners willing to shop and pay in the shadow of the law. Goodwin suggests that the best alternative model for organ procurement is a market approach or one based on presumed consent and provides an alternative way of studying how to increase the supply of organs and other body parts as well.

Genres: Nonfiction, Economics

314 pages, Hardcover

First published March 27, 2006

Reviews

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive book on a difficult topic. The author is a legal scholar, and this is seen in the author's adept handling of such cases.

[Ke · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to preface that Prof. Goodwin is my Torts professor. Regardless of this conflict of interests, I found this book accessible (for someone without much medical background), historically-situated (e.g. the discussion of Tuskegee syphilis experiments and medical schools' supplies of African American cadavers) and innovative (challenging the comparisons of body part sales and slavery).

That said, because of my international background, I would have liked to read more about how the US procurement system reaches China and Brazil.