Is Selling Executed Prisoners' Organs Moral or Ethical?

Introduction: Framing the Moral Question

On the surface, this seems like a very straightforward question, but, as with all moral and ethical dilemmas, it is not as simple as it first appears. The question asks whether a state can sell the organs and other body parts of an executed prisoner — either to recoup some of the cost of housing them or because, under one line of reasoning, the body belongs to the state once a person is charged with a capital crime. Using an alternative form of logic, some argue that this practice can be seen as moral or, at the very least, morally neutral.

The reason many consider the answer obvious — that selling an executed prisoner's organs is immoral — is rooted in the belief that a person's body is both their own and sacred. Religious groups and others who champion moral traditions are quick to point out that an individual retains control over their own body even after death, and that conducting such a trade therefore violates that right. To properly examine the rightness or wrongness of the practice, the question must be broken down into its component parts, each addressed in turn. This paper attempts to look at the issue from all angles and determine the moral correctness of the practice.

The Ethics of Organ Transplantation and Donation

The first point to establish is that it is not considered wrong, in any culture or jurisdiction, to accept a donated organ when one needs it.¹ "Foreign," in this context, means from a different person — not from a person of a different nationality. Organ transplantation has been occurring for more than a century, and the procedure has been refined to the point where patients commonly survive and recover. The morality of accepting or providing a needed organ is therefore not in dispute — society has already reached broad consensus that the practice is acceptable.

The further question, then, is whether it should be legal to sell parts of one's body to another. People are currently permitted to give their own body parts to others, and this has been happening for a long time. Donors are often family members of the recipient because they are a closer genetic match. The organ is taken from the donor and given freely to the recipient, with no moral objection from anyone. However, voluntary gift-giving is not the same as selling, and commercial organ sale presents specific problems that are difficult to ignore.

The Economics and Legality of Selling Organs

Any commodity that is sold becomes more valuable as need or demand increases. A basic principle of economics is that of supply and demand: if there is great demand for a product and a shortage of supply, its price will rise. The converse is equally true. In the present case, there is a significant shortage of available organs because living people — who make the best donors — generally need the organs they have. Some organs, such as kidneys, exist in pairs, but a person may need both if disease or injury damages one of them.² This scarcity makes needed organs both rare and extremely valuable.

The reason a person might sell an organ they could potentially need is pressing financial necessity that cannot be addressed through conventional means. In such circumstances, it might seem that the individual should be free to use any legal means at their disposal to resolve their financial difficulties. Unfortunately, selling an organ — even one that might be considered "extra" — is illegal in most jurisdictions. The person is therefore unable to obtain needed funds in this manner, despite the organ clearly belonging to the body in which it resides.

This leads to the question of why governments do not permit people to sell their own organs.³ In a true free-market society, individuals would be free to negotiate any transaction they wished involving their own property. However, regulations exist both to protect people from outside exploitation and from harmful decisions they might make themselves. One person making a poor financial decision may cause little harm to others, but legalizing organ sales broadly could endanger a great many people. If such sales were legal, there would quickly be those who would exploit the situation — harvesting organs from unwilling individuals. This would constitute a serious criminal problem, and the market itself would become difficult to regulate safely.⁴

Conclusion: Morality, Consent, and Bodily Ownership

A prisoner still owns his or her own body. It is unreasonable to think that because a person gives up certain rights upon incarceration, those forfeited rights include the loss of personhood or bodily ownership. Given this, it is immoral for the state to sell the body parts of an individual without that person's written and legally recognized permission. There is an additional complication for governments wishing to pursue such a program: no country except Iran has made the sale of body parts legal.¹¹ Since such transactions are not lawful, it is neither legal nor moral for a government to engage in them. But setting aside legality and focusing purely on morality, the conclusion remains the same.

After death, a prisoner's claim to their own body changes — but ownership does not simply transfer to the state. After execution, the prisoner has served their sentence, and the body belongs to the next of kin. For a government to harvest the organs of an executed individual, even posthumously, is therefore immoral because the body has become, in a meaningful sense, the property of someone else — the family. Setting aside questions of bodily sanctity, the core issue is whether it is ethical to damage or dispose of another person's property without consent. The answer is clearly that it is not. Unless verifiable, freely given consent from the prisoner or their next of kin is obtained, the state has no moral right to sell the organs of the executed.

Bibliography

Carney, Scott. "Inside the Business of Selling Human Body Parts." Wired, January 31, 2011.

Cline, Austin. "Is it Ethical to Allow Organs to be Sold on the Open Market?" 2010. (Accessed October 28, 2012).

Cline, Austin. "Selling Organs for Transplants: Commodification and Ownership of Bodies." 2010. (Accessed October 28, 2012).

McGivering, Jill. "China Selling Prisoner's Organs." BBC News, April 19, 2006.

Ritter, Peter. "Legalizing the Organ Trade?" Time Magazine, August 19, 2008.

Wheldon, Julie. "China Accused of Selling Organs of Executed Prisoners." The Daily Mail, September 27, 2006, Online Edition.