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.

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.

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.

Informed, willing and healthy prisoners should not be deprived of the opportunity to help the sick while improving their own prospects once they are free.

As long as an organ shortage persists there will be black markets; the only remedy is more organs.

Altruism is simply not enough to satisfy the global organ shortage that has spawned illegal and unregulated organ markets, so government-sponsored compensation of healthy of individuals who are willing to give one of their kidneys is the best short-term solution.