By Bjorn Carey Posted 02.05.2010 at 3:04 pm 27 Comments

Pricey Organs Victor de Schwanberg/Photo Researchers

First, a disclaimer: Selling your organs is illegal in the United States. It’s also very dangerous. Handing off an organ is risky enough when done in a top hospital, even more so if you’re doing it for cash in a back alley. No, really: Don’t do this. OK? OK.

There are many organs one can theoretically do without, or for which there’s a backup. Most folks can spare a kidney, a portion of their liver, a lung, some intestines, and an eyeball, and still live a long life. That said, donating a lung, a piece of liver or a section of intestines is a very complicated surgery, so it’s not done frequently on the black market. And no one’s going to make much cash on an eyeball. “In the U.S., there’s a fairly steady supply of donated corneas from corpses,” says Sean Fitzpatrick, director of public affairs at the New England Organ Bank. “There’s pretty much no market demand for eyes.” Giving up a kidney, though, is a relatively simple surgery that has netted desperate people a few bucks.

Now, black-market organ dealers don’t do a great job of filing taxes, but here are some prices based on rumored deals and reports from the World Heath Organization. In India, a kidney fetches around $20,000. In China, buyers will pay $40,000 or more. A good, healthy kidney from Israel goes for $160,000.

Don’t expect to pocket all that dough, though. “The person giving up the organ only gets a fraction of the fee,” says Sally Satel, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute think tank who studies the prices paid by legal and illegal organ-donor operations. After the organ broker—the guy who sets up your kidney-for-cash transaction—takes his cut, he needs to pay for travel, the surgeon, medical supplies and a few “look-the-other-way” payoffs. Most people get $1,000 to $10,000 for their kidney (probably much less than you were hoping for).

The best bet is to wait until compensation for organs is legalized in the U.S.—the Organ Trafficking Prohibition Act of 2009 would allow payment to donors, but it stalled in Congress—because there’s certainly a market for kidneys. Last summer, a man offering one of his for $100,000 (plus medical expenses) on Craigslist received several offers until the Web site removed his post. And you could probably hold out for even more. In 1999, before eBay delisted a kidney put up for auction, bidders drove the price up to $5.75 million.

Try to stump us. Send your questions to fyi@popsci.com

27 Comments

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Dustin2127
01/25/10 at 9:57 pm

Bwhahahahahah, selling your kidney on eBay, 5.75M! Still, could be a nice business until grown organs take over.

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animemaster
02/05/10 at 3:10 pm

I have a friend who swears people buy testicles.

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beesnuts
02/05/10 at 3:33 pm

why would you buy testicles?

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chieffranky
02/05/10 at 3:40 pm

@: beesnuts
Because I would take yours! Muwahahaha!!

But no, seriously, I'll be seeing you guys in Israel. Now if only I could convince them to give me 160,000 British pounds instead and I could come back home to almost twice that! Ha ha!

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animemaster
02/05/10 at 8:02 pm

I wonder what the market for finger prints is like.

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chieffranky
02/06/10 at 4:07 am

Awesome. I don't need my finger prints either. Some criminal is getting lucky tonight!

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Dane619
02/06/10 at 3:11 pm

wow for 5.75 million id give my kidney too!

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popular scientist
02/06/10 at 7:21 pm

So that's what happened. George Bush sold his brain, not his soul.

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eevinko
02/07/10 at 11:53 am

Some people will just do anything they have to in a pinch I guess.

ER
www.internet-anonymity.se.tc

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chieffranky
02/07/10 at 2:04 pm

Now everyone has to read Unwind.

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Meshca
02/07/10 at 2:47 pm

lol. blackmarket10 I believe you because of your username. You know all this from experience? or did they steal your kidney and you want revenge?

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NOM
02/07/10 at 3:25 pm

In an recent trip to Vietnam, my guide said that American couples were buying Vietnamese babies and taking them back to the US to use their organs for transplants for their own sick children. This is what they believe happens to these babies. I saw several western women leaving the country, each holding a couple of asian babies.

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Meshca
02/07/10 at 3:44 pm

NOM. This world has everything you can imagine. It probably rarely happens, but it happens.

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NOM
02/07/10 at 9:45 pm

I wasn't saying that it happens, only that the Vietnamese believed that it did, yet poor families still sold their babies

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BrettGrant
02/07/10 at 11:44 pm

Earning money through selling organs in really a bad idea. Why want to sell part of you? Not appreciate it? Well, I have read somewhere that our whole body from head to head worth at least 40 millions (excluding the soul). Will you sell it?

It's sad to learn that some people in certain countries practice this to earn a living. In case if you don't know there are reports by some NGOs that found out that people were cheated for their organs. If I'm not mistaken it happens in India where people are promised jobs in other places but once reached there, they are drugged and have their kidneys removed.

Brett,
www.cutetotebagstore.com

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animemaster
02/08/10 at 12:59 am

What is the going rate for plasma these days?

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meyaht
02/09/10 at 4:08 pm

I think the suicide hotline should advertise organ sales. "Sure, off yourself, just don't use poison. That way your family can sell your guts and make $40 mil."

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martindanny
02/11/10 at 11:01 am

"No pain No gain!"

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Kennard
02/11/10 at 3:09 pm

I have a body part I'd like to donate, but he's in Sacramento!

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Nate Henry
02/12/10 at 2:20 pm

Selling your kidney doesn't seem to be a good idea, because if the other one you have fails then your out of luck.

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Macie
02/13/10 at 1:40 pm

Im with meyaht 4:08 on this one...Waste not Want not! If I thought I could sell a kidney and/or part of my liver and have enough to finish repairing my house after this little ole 6.5 Earthquake, I'd be quite the happy camper recuperating on vacation in South America...anytime.

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Limpid-Avenger
02/13/10 at 2:04 pm

Mr. Obama could donate the terminus of his alimentary tract. After all he has Joe Biden.

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Alabama Fatbody
02/13/10 at 4:15 pm

Limpid-Avenger - That surgery is a little more complicated by the fact that you would have to remove most major media organizations first. But I'll bet the bidding war among those orgs after the procedure would net the President a nice retirement account for after the 2012 elections.

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Limpid-Avenger
02/13/10 at 9:00 pm

Fatbody

You're my man. I hadn't thought of the ancillary benefits. Go Tide!

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Planetwatch
02/18/10 at 11:22 am

Mescha, Blackmarket10 is exactly right. Don't be naive. This is nothing to LOL about. One day the evils of the real government of Israel (not necessarily the Israeli people, mind you, but the assholes in charge - just like in the USA) are going to be exposed big time. They are one of the most evil forces on the planet today. They have been harvesting Palestian body parts, and are doing the same in Haiti. Isn't it interesting that they were the first to set up a high tech hospital there? And then someone found a box of eyes and didn't understand why they were there? Just got intercepted somehow on their way out - they were boxed and ready to be shipped. This was on YouTube, some European news network.

Wake up, people. Zionism is bullshit. The Global Dark Elite think you are useless eaters and want you dead. In fact, websites like this are considered brilliant distractions so that you don't figure out what they're really doing.

So, hey, have fun with the new toys...

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pyrotronic_alex
02/20/10 at 6:45 pm

china has to be thinking about selling their kids to organ farms to help control their over population

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Disguy4
06/26/11 at 2:17 pm

One day we will all be allowed to do anything we want with our bodies that we can afford, especially if we are not really harming anyone, not even ourselves. For example, why am I not allowed to sell part of my liver? There are people out their with loads of money who can't find a free liver transplant donor that matches them and they are being allowed to simply die. Famous important people, who can continue to contribute to mankind are dying because they can't find a matching donor. The liver is a special organ in that it regenerates when part of it is damaged and cut out. It is a well known fact that a person can survive and regrow their own liver with up to 85% lost function due to various injuries. I submit to you that I could give 2/3 of my liver to allow 2 people to have a new liver. Each one third of my liver should easily regrow in the recipients to enable them to have a full size functioning liver, thus saving their lives. Meanwhile, my liver can grow back to its 100% capacity in a matter of 10 weeks. No typo there. I said that the liver is a special organ. It is commonplace in liver surgery to use liver regenerating hormones or chemicals very similar to what is found in the Milk Thistle plant, to allow full recovery and regeneration of the liver in 6 weeks. So , Why are we not allowed to sell our livers to save lives?


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