Should You Be Able to Buy a Kidney (and for How Much )? | FT #shorts

Why It Matters

A regulated donor market could reduce Medicare’s roughly $55 billion annual dialysis bill, improve patient outcomes, and spark contentious policy and ethical debates about commodifying organs. Implementing such a market would have major fiscal and public-health implications.

Summary

An expert argues the U.S. should create a regulated market to compensate living kidney donors to address a major transplant shortage. They say ethical and legal safeguards could prevent exploitation while greatly increasing donor supply and saving thousands of lives. Because dialysis is medically inferior and cumulatively more expensive, a one-time payment for a kidney would cut long-term costs. The speaker estimates paying $80,000–$100,000 per kidney would still be cheaper than ongoing dialysis and likely exceed the market clearing price.

Original Description

Author of 'Moral Economics' Alvin Roth would like us to be more generous to kidney donors. But should one be able to buy a kidney — and if so, for how much?⁠

#kidney #kidneyhealth #health #healtheconomics #kidneydonation #kidneydonor #shorts #shortsvideo #shortfeed #shortsviral #shortsyoutube #shortsvideos

► Enjoying FT content? Get a daily slice of the very best FT journalism with FT Edit. Free for 30 days then just £4.99 a month

See if you get the FT for free as a student (http://ft.com/schoolsarefree) or start a £1 trial: https://subs.ft.com/spa3_trial?segmentId=3d4ba81b-96bb-cef0-9ece-29efd6ef2132.

► Check out our Community tab for more stories: https://www.youtube.com/@FinancialTimes/community

► Listen to our podcasts: https://www.ft.com/podcasts

► Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/financialtimes

► Follow us on Instagram: https://www.tiktok.com/@financialtimes