Question

A.2 Price Restrictions Question 3: SAN FRANCISCO (CNN) - Online shoppers who frequent the Internet auction site eBay are used to seeing a wide variety of things for sale Still, the notice of a "ully functional kidney" put up on the site last week created a stir. It also brought in bids of more than $5.7 million before the company intervened to block the sale While donating human organs is encouraged, trafficking in human organs is a federal felony, punishable by a minimum of five years in prison and fines of $50,000 or more Steve Westly, eBay's vice president of marketing, said "eBay has zero tolerance for illegal items on the site." He added that "We have a very clear policy against this." The seller, who gave his home as Sunrise, Florida, posted the following notice: "Fully functional kidney for sale. You can choose either kidney. Buyer pays all transplant and medical costs. Of course only one for sale, as I need the other one to live. Serious bids only." What effect will that law about trafficking in human organs have in the marketplace? What would happen in the marketplace if the law were removed? Explain your answers Answer to Question:

Answer 1

Before focusing on the above-given case study, let us study the concept of Price Control or Price Restrictions:-

Price Controls are government -mandated legal minimum or maximum prices set for the specified goods, usually implemented as a means of direct economic intervention to manage the affordability of certain goods.

As has been cited in the above case law, trafficking in human organs is considered illegal. Anyone involved in illegal organ transplant or trafficking could get from five to ten years of prison and a fine of two to $50000. The amended law also regulates donations of organs and human tissue between unrelated people. Additionally, organs and tissues cannot be removed from mentally challenged, retarded and ill persons before their death

There is an urgent need to stop illegal organ transplants in the country and even through e-commerce sites. Illegal organ trafficking primarily involves liver, kidneys, pancreas, and cornea. According to the World Health Organisation, the traffic touches 65000 children each year. But in the rest of the world, the demand for live human organs clearly outstrips supply by a conservative factor of two to one.

Donating human organs should not be encouraged at all. Their sale is considered illegal even in the United States. People can donate organs but they cannot sell them. The price of transplant organs is set at $0 and below equilibrium. Amending the law that prohibits the sale of body parts would alleviate the shortage because a higher market price would increase the number of organs supplied and decrease the number of organs demanded.

Organ trafficking and illicit transplant surgeries have even infiltrated global medical practice. The sites of trafficking of human organs have expanded from Asia to the Middle East, Eastern Europe, South Africa, Central Asia, Latin America, and the US. The organ trafficking market is on a rise worldwide. In the US such sales are illegal under the National Organ Transplant Act. Encouraging donation by offering any sort of payment is also illegal.

Legislative action in response to the organ trade has centered on the prohibition of organ sales and the enforcement of criminal sanctions targeting "trafficking' offenses. The existing Law enforcement response is not only inadequate but also harmful. The prohibition has pushed the organ trade further underground increasing the role of organ brokers and reducing the bargaining position of organ sellers, leaving them exposed to greater levels of exploitation.

The Legislation called the Transplantation of the Human Organ Act was passed in 1994 to streamline organ donation and transplantation activities. The ethics of commerce in organ donation and transplant tourism has been widely criticized by international bodies Despite the THO act neither has the commerce stopped nor have the number of deceased donors increased to take care of organ shortage. So, even the removal of such a law will have no effect on the marketplace.