Our nation's current organ donation system relies on altruism alone, but a regime of donor compensation would be better.

Roughly 10% of all organ transplants in the world are obtained on the black market. A new investigation by puts a brutal face on that underground world.

In October of 2009, Kumud Majumder, the father of an 11-year-old son with advanced leukemia, joined a lawsuit challenging the federal ban on compensating bone-marrow donors. He wanted to save his son's life. Last week Mr. Majumder and his co-plaintiffs enjoyed a victory. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the majority of bone-marrow donors may lawfully be compensated.

When Altruism Isn't Enough explores the key ethical, theoretical, and practical concerns of a government-regulated donor compensation program.

This event will discuss organ donation.

Sally Satel assembles medical practitioners, legal scholars, economists, and ethicists to evaluate the merits of and need for an incentive-based system for increasing the supply of kidneys.

China is proposing forward-thinking transplant policies that offer to pay organ donors. These proposals challenge the status quo, however if China is serious about creating an incentive program, transparency and accountability will be vital to its integrity and safety.

Governments must provide in-kind incentives in order to spur organ donations, as altruism cannot be the sole legitimate motive for donating, and to achieve the true end of saving more lives.