Sumner on Organ Markets

In the WaPo, he writes

The prohibition of payment to organ donors has led to a kidney shortage leading to the preventable loss of 5,000 to 10,000 lives each year. The cost of treating people with kidney disease is so high that an organ transplant market would not merely save lives, but would actually save money as well. According to the study, “the net benefit from saving thousands of lives each year and reducing the suffering of 100,000 more receiving dialysis would be about $46 billion per year, with the benefits exceeding the costs by a factor of 3.”

Organ markets would be a humane and profoundly moral development for the health sector. Hopefully we can get there.

Some Ice For That Burn

Meanwhile at the WaPo ...

Higher education is increasingly a house divided. In the sciences and even the humanities, actual scholars maintain the high standards of their noble calling. But in the humanities, especially, and elsewhere, faux scholars representing specious disciplines exploit academia as a jobs program for otherwise unemployable propagandists hostile to freedom of expression.

Stop pulling punches and tell us what you really think, William. A surprisingly scathing assessment though from the WaPo.

In engineering, my impression is that most serious researchers basically ignore the whole mess. "Great, you guys go do that thing, I'll be in my office ... ".

I could be wrong.