The Government Should Not Pay Taxpayers for Their Kidneys

Once again, well-meaning advocates are pushing kidney-selling as a means to shorten the organ transplant waiting list.

The push is on to pass the End Kidney Deaths Act (HR 2687) before the end of the current Congress. The bill would start a pilot program in which the government would buy kidneys from living people — through a $50,000 total ($10,000 per year) tax credit — if they're "donating" (selling) to a stranger.

I sympathize with the goal of saving lives. But if this proposal becomes law, the government would literally be paying its citizens to harm themselves physically — and those more likely to take the deal would likely be on the lower end of the economic spectrum.