The nation’s system for procuring and distributing vital organs is badly broken. Demand vastly outstrips supply. Today, there are over 92,000 people waiting for organs—mostly kidneys–and each day eighteen of them will die before they get one. The wait in many locations is over five years and by 2010, it...

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.

Please note: This event has been canceled. At this event, Sally Satel, M.D., will discuss her new book, When Altruism Isn’t Enough: The Case for Compensating Kidney Donors and the national organ shortage.

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.

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

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.

The National Organ Transplant Act of 1984 should be changed or repealed to allow markets for transplant organs to form.