Would the auction of organs on eBay or other auction sites result in a perfectly competitve market for organs?

[Chelsea]

This applies to microeconomics...so would society be better off if individuals could auction off their organs for harvest after their death (or for immediate harvest in the case of a kidney...)? Why or why not?

[Farty McSmell]

I saw on the news a living man who had 10% of his body left because he had sold parts for scientific research as selling organs was legal in his country, so no I don't think it's a good idea because people would go too far like that.

Nobody is going to pay you for your organs for use after your death because that could be in 50 years time or whatever.

[House825]

No, Auctioning organs does not work because only the rich would receive the organs. No one would sell their kidney to a poor person for $50 when they could get $150,000 from a rich person. It would punish the poor.

Auctioning organs in the present for use after a person dies would not work at all. Most organs that can be used come from people who died as a result of some type of trauma to the head; they are brain dead (which is the same as dead) and their blood is kept circulating by using a ventilator. If the blood is not kept circulating, the organs become unusable. So let's say I died from a heart attack and no one found me for a few hours. My blood was not circulating, so the organs could not be used. Since no one knows in what manner I would die, they could not auction organs that might not be usable.

I received a kidney and pancreas transplant in 2005. I am now a trained volunteer on donation.