Federal Law is Why Americans Bury Organs Instead of Transplanting Them

An Alabama woman is doing well after receiving a transplant of a genetically modified pig kidney. She had been on dialysis for eight years prior to the transplant. Towana Looney had donated a kidney to her mother 25 years ago. Her remaining kidney began to fail due to high blood pressure and complications from a pregnancy. Looney could not match with a suitable human kidney as she had developed antibodies especially hostile to other human kidneys. Last Spring when Looney applied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to be allowed to receive the experimental pig kidney transplant, the federal health agency initially declined. Instead, the first experimental pig kidneys went to sicker patients, who later died. She finally got her chance this Fall. According to U.S. News & World Report:

Looney is doing well, all things considered. If her gene edited pig kidney ultimately fails, she can always go back on dialysis. While the research is fascinating and perhaps Looney had no other options due to her enhanced immune response, her kidney problem is largely the fault of the government. A 1984 federal law makes organs artificially scarce.

The National Organ Transplant Act of 1984 banned the buying and selling of most human tissues. The law was ostensibly to prevent the wealthy from having an advantage over the poor in organ procurement. However, one can easily argue that the law hurt the poor far more than it helped them. Lower income households are far more likely to need transplants than wealthier (healthier) households. If more organs were readily available because there was a market for tissues, there would be far fewer people on waiting lists. In addition, tissues and organs are often the only valuable asset a poor family has when their loved one dies. Under federal law, they either have to bury that asset to decompose, cremate it or give it away for free.

To the extent that the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984 made selling organs illegal, it represented a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. Wealthier households are better at navigating the organ donation system. They can employ physicians to advocate on their behalf. Apple founder, Steve Jobs was able to get on multiple regional organ transplant waiting lists for a liver. This was likely due to his connections but also due to his business jet that could get him anywhere in the U.S. within the three-hour deadline once a liver was available.

Organ transplants are big business. Everyone involved makes money off organ transplants, except the original owner of the organ. Doctors, hospitals, regional transplant banks all share in the $442,500 average cost of a kidney transplant ($1.7 million for a heart transplant).

According to the National Funeral Directors Association, the median cost of a funeral with viewing, burial and a vault is nearly $10,000. Even for a cremation, the median cost is still a hefty $6,300. If people were able to sell their deceased loved ones’ organs, the amount would likely be enough to cover funeral expenses if not more.

U.S. News & World Report explains that more than 100,000 people are on waiting lists for an organ suitable for transplant. Most of those are waiting for a kidney. Many will die while waiting, as will thousands more who never qualified for a transplant and were never added to the official waiting lists. This number would be far smaller if families had an incentive to part with a loved one’s organs at time of death.

Read more at: An Alabama Woman Is Doing Well After the Latest Experimental Pig Kidney Transplant