Black Markets
The Supply and Demand of Body Parts

This book presents a contemporary view of human organ and tissue procurement.

Michele Goodwin (Author)

9780521852807, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 March 2006

314 pages
23.5 x 16 x 2.3 cm, 0.538 kg

'Black Markets is a fascinating look at an issue fraught with social, ethical, and legal challenges. Michele Goodwin is an academic, and her work reads as such, with a plethora of sources and statistics to back up her assertions … Black Markets is a useful addition to any academic law library's collection on health care law.' Stephanie Karnosh, Reference Librarian, McMillan LLP

In America, 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 coordinators or brokers for organs. Chinese inmates on death-row and the economically disadvantaged in India and Brazil are the often compromised co-participants in the private negotiation process, which occurs outside the legal process - or in the shadows of law. These individuals supply kidneys and other organs for Americans and other Westerners willing to shop and pay in the private process. This book contends that exclusive reliance on the present altruistic tissue and organ procurement processes in the United States is not only rife with problems, but also improvident. The author explores how the altruistic approach leads to a 'black market' of organs being harvested from Third World individuals as well as compelled donations from children and incompetent persons.

1. Introduction
Part I: 2. Institutional supply and demand
3. Nuances, judicial authority, and legal limits of altruism
4. Equal opportunity rationing: racial and economic disparities
Part II. Legal Frameworks and Alternatives: 5. The legal process of procurement and allocation: regulatory frame
6. Presumed consent
7. Commodification
Part III: 8. Tissue sales: an African American predicament?: critiquing the slavery and black body market comparison
9. The private and public financial transaction in tissue transplantation
10. African Americans and organ sales
11. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Transplant surgery [MNQ], Medicolegal issues [MBQ], Medical ethics & professional conduct [MBDC], Politics & government [JP]