A free market approach to organ shortage

The following is from John Stossel, How Much Is Your Kidney Worth?, nysun.com, Jan. 17, 2008:

Why are so many people so hostile to free markets?***

Why is selling an organ “radical”? Banning the sale of kidneys kills thousands of people a year. That should be considered “radical.”***

Every day, about 17 Americans die while waiting for a transplant.

Yet plenty of Americans would give up a kidney if they could just be paid for their trouble and risk.***

So giving someone a kidney is a good deed, but selling the same kidney is a felony.***

The Kidney Foundation fears that poor people would be “exploited.”*** To say the poor are too desperate to resist a dangerous temptation is patronizing.