Kidneys For Sale

Alex Tabarrok notes that Singapore is now allowing compensation for kidneys. And Stephen Dubner summarizes a study on organ donation by a team of Harvard University researchers:

...in a nutshell: The people who receive donated organs in the U.S. nearly always have health insurance, while a significant fraction of the people who donate the organs do not. In other words: poorer people are more willing to give organs than they are likely to receive them.

...Anti-market arguments usually include the concern that poor people would be compelled to sell organs while rich people never would. As true as this may be may be it ignores what is to me the more salient point: a market would also give many more poor people the opportunity to get organs, not just give them.