New York – Does Jewish Law Permit Donating a Kidney? What About Selling One?

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    New York – With the recent media attention of the arrest of a Brooklyn man who is accused of trafficking kidneys, one might wonder does the Jewish law permit selling and donating organs.

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    Renowned doctor and expert in medical law according to the Halacah, has written below article on this subject, and is posted on Aish.com

    The Organ Shortage

    There is a severe shortage of organs for transplantation throughout the world, including in the most scientifically advanced countries. The U.S. Government reports that each day, about 74 people receive an organ transplant. However, another 18 people die each day waiting for transplants that can’t take place because of the shortage of donated organs. (www.organdonor.gov)

    While organ transplantation has offered a new life to those whose native organs have failed, it has raised a myriad of ethical questions. Although the issues raised in live and cadaveric donation are different, all organ transplantation questions have three ethical issues that must be clarified: with respect to the donor, the recipient, and society at large.

    The Donor

    As our discussion focuses on donors who are alive, the issues of desecration of the dead body and prolonging the burial do not apply. The issues that do arise are whether the donor is allowed to wound himself to donate the organ, and whether the harvesting is acceptably safe. In most cases, the prohibition of wounding oneself may be superceded by other considerations, such as medical necessity, or as in this case, saving the life of another.

    The consensus of modern poskim 1 (rabbinic legal decisors) is that one may undergo a small risk to save someone else from certain danger or death (see SARS and Self-Endangerment) Nevertheless, one may never obligate or coerce someone to donate an organ, even to save the life of another. Additionally, one may not significantly risk one’s own health to save the life of another, and one who does is called a “pious fool. 2

    Donating a Kidney

    With respect to kidney donation, the issue is whether the surgery poses a significant risk to the donor and whether living with only one kidney is an unacceptable risk.

    Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, 3 among other Rabbinic authorities, 4 permitted, but did not require, the donation of a kidney to very ill person, considering the act to be a pious one.

    Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, arguably the preeminent decisor of Jewish law in Israel during the latter part of the 20th century, ruled that “if the seriously ill patient is present (and known to him…) it is certainly permissible for a person to even undergo much suffering, for example, by donating his kidney, to save the life of the patient.” 5

    The 12 grown children argued over who would have the privilege of donating a kidney to their father.

    Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, a leading decisor in Israel, also rules that live organ donation of kidneys is permissible and appropriate, while not an obligation. Rabbi Elyashiv became personally involved in the case of well-known Knesset member Rabbi Avraham Ravitz, who required a kidney transplant. Rabbi Ravitz’s 12 grown children argued over who would have the privilege of donating a kidney to their father. In the end, with the guidance of Rabbi Elyashiv, the choice was narrowed down to two sons, with the final decision being made by means of a lottery. 6

    Dr. Avraham Steinberg, author of the Encyclopedia of Jewish Medical Ethics, encapsulates the four requirements necessary for ethical live organ donation. 7 He asserts that:

    1. surgery to remove the organ must not be dangerous
    2. the donor must be able to continue his life normally after the donation
    3. the donor must not require prolonged and chronic medical care, and
    4. the success rate in the recipient must be high

    Some decisors have expressed hesitation to allow live organ donation, concerned that the risk may be too great to the donor. However, as the risk of complication has been greatly lowered, even these opinions might permit live kidney donation. For the sake of thoroughness, we present here the few circumspect opinions:

    Rabbi Yitzchak Weiss 8 was very concerned about both the danger associated with the donor’s surgery and the risk of living with only one kidney. As a result, he was inclined to forbid such a transplant, but suggested that kidney donation may be permissible if the donor will definitely save the life of the recipient by his donation. Even in such a case, he remained circumspect.

    Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Waldenberg 9 is also hesitant to allow live donation, but writes that while it is not a mitzvah, if the expert doctors are sure that there will be no danger to the donor, he may donate a kidney to one who is seriously ill. Dr. Avraham Avraham describes Rabbi Waldenberg as meaning that certainty does not mean “there is no possibility of harm,” but rather that “there is a good possibility he will not come to harm.” 10

    Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef evaluates the objections of both Rabbi Weiss and Rabbi Waldenberg, but asserts that since the true risk of kidney donation is so low, there is a great mitzvah to donate a kidney. 11 He even suggests the possibility that donating a kidney to save a life might be required by the Torah’s command “not to stand idly by as your neighbor’s blood is shed.” 12 Rabbi Yosef ends his responsa with the words: “Thus it appears that the standard rule is that it is permitted and also a mitzvah to donate one of his kidneys to save the life of a fellow Jew who suffers from renal failure.” 13
    Donating Blood and Bone Marrow

    Donation of blood and bone marrow are much easier to halachically justify. Blood and marrow are quickly renewable, and while the donation process is somewhat painful for bone marrow donation (sometimes requiring general anesthesia); both forms of donation are very safe, presenting minimal risk to the donor. For these reasons, these types of live donation are permitted by all.

    Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach felt that it is a mitzvah to be a bone marrow donor to save a Jewish life. 14 Both Rabbi Auerbach and Rabbi Moshe Feinstein ruled that one is permitted to donate blood to a blood bank even without knowing that it will go to save a life. 15 Interestingly, Rabbi Auerbach ruled that a competent minor may agree to donate bone marrow and the parents of an incompetent minor may consent for him. 16

    If the potential donor does not wish to donate his blood or marrow, there is a difference of opinion. Some rabbinic authorities feel that one cannot be compelled to donate, even at the cost of the potential recipient’s life, while others feel that coercion is permitted to save a life. 17

    By contrast, donations of other solid organs which present a significantly higher risk (such as liver lobes and lung lobes) are more difficult to justify.

    The Recipient

    The perspective of the recipient is straightforward. So long as the donor is permitted to donate the organ, and there is a medical indication for the transplant, the recipient is permitted to accept it, so long as there is no other viable, less dangerous medical treatment available.

    The recipient must be capable of following the post-transplant medical regimen.

    The recipient must understand the risks associated with transplant, including the need for life-long immunosuppressive therapy, and must be capable of following the necessary post-transplant medical regimen, including being able to afford the anti-rejection drugs.

    Judaism has no intrinsic objection to accepting an organ donation per se, but only insists that no prohibitions be transgressed in the process of donation.

    Society

    Societal issues also come into play with respect to live organ donation, the most sensitive being payment for organs. While society wants to provide incentives to increase the donor pool, incentives that are too persuasive may unduly influence a potential donor to undertake a course of action that is not prudent. Donors are routinely reimbursed for expenses related to donating their organ, but such payment is not usually considered to undermine the purely altruistic motivation of the donor.

    Selling Organs

    Actual payment for organs themselves is a very controversial topic. Most experts in the field of transplantation, including surgeons and ethicists, have expressed opposition to payment for organs. In the United States, federal law prohibits the sale or trade of organs. The motivation behind the ban is a concern for exploitation of people who would not donate except for the monetary incentive, as is already the case in India. Additionally, there is a fear that the creation of a market in human organs will create an inequity between rich and poor. Those who can afford organs would be able to obtain them, while those who could not afford them would be left without options.

    The best solution for society might be a national registry of people who are willing to donate for compensation.

    Nevertheless, there are benefits to allowing direct payment for live organ donation. Obviously, it might increase the supply of organs, saving more lives, even if it does skew the distribution of the organs. While allowing compensation for organs would surely encourage only the poor to donate, causing a degree of inequity, in the current situation it is only the rich who currently can afford to buy a kidney on the black market anyway. Hence, the best solution for society might be a national registry of people who are willing to donate for compensation, with the kidneys allocated by the national registry in the same way that is currently done for cadaveric organs. This would hopefully lead to equal distributions to all recipients, including the poor. 18

    Advocates of organ sales point out that society does not object to the many people who undertake dangerous forms of employment for monetary compensation (such as miners, soldiers, firefighters and policemen). 19

    Another justification of payment for organs is that it would bring an end to the thriving international black-market in human organs, which now currently functions unregulated, with most of the profits going to middle-men, not the poor people selling their organs. 20

    For society, increasing the organ supply makes fiscal sense. The cost of kidney surgery is far less than the cost of dialysis, which runs about $50,000 per year. Even paying large sums of money to donors would save money in the long run.

    But from a philosophical point of view, there is another reason to consider allowing the sale of organs. It may be a misplaced sense of paternalism that leads us to prevent the sale of organs by the poor. While other less traumatic means of helping the underprivileged would be far better, the reality of the world situation today is that there are millions of people who might welcome the chance to alleviate their poverty by selling an organ.

    Society must also protect potential donors from coercive tactics or from being preyed upon due to donor ignorance. Informed consent is an absolute requirement of live organ donation. For this reason, mentally incompetent people who cannot consent to donate in a meaningful way are usually barred from becoming live donors. A particularly interesting question raised by Dr. Steinberg is the case of an incompetent potential living donor whose primary caregiver is a relative in need of the transplant. The potential donor may suffer more from not donating if the caregiver will die for lack of a donor organ!

    May Jews Sell Organs?

    Taking all this into account, we must ask whether selling one’s organs is permitted from a Jewish legal perspective. In the final analysis, there is no intrinsic halachic objection to selling organs, per se. Rabbi Yaakov Weiner, Dean of the Jerusalem Center for Research, integrates the issues that we have discussed (the problem of injuring oneself, the degree of acceptable risk, and the motivations that might drive someone to sell an organ) when he rules: 21

    One may sell his organs to save a life, if it causes no halachic risk to the donor’s life. This would not be subject to the prohibition of injuring oneself, because selling the organ is seen as a great need to save life and also because saving a life is a mitzvah which suspends all others. If however a lifesaving situation does not obtain, for example, selling organs to a bank or for research purposes, then doing so is prohibited. But if the motivation for his selling the organ could be defined as a great need (e.g., avoiding bankruptcy with its accompanying legal and social repercussions), it would be permitted.

    This ruling may seem novel, but in reality is very logical. There is no particular reason why receiving compensation for an action which involves risk should necessarily be forbidden either morally or halachically. While most secular experts remain opposed to payment for organs, there is a growing support for the idea. In an excellent article in the British medical journal Lancet, 22 the authors make several cogent arguments for why payment for organs should be revisited, raising each objection and explaining how it might be solved. A review article in the Israel Medical Association Journal 23 also supported permitting payment for organs under tightly controlled guidelines.

    The fact that one is being rewarded for an act, does not take away from the ethical value of that act.

    From a Jewish legal point of view, the mere fact that one is being rewarded for an act, does not take away from the ethical value of that act. In fact, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach ruled that “even if the person selling his kidney is poor (and needs the money for himself) or to pay off his debts, since he obtains this money by saving the life of another Jew, he will certainly be doing a mitzvah. This is true even if he would not have donated his kidney only to save life.” 24

    If we put aside the issue of live organ donation itself, there is a precedent in Jewish law for the selling of organs. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein ruled 25 that one may sell one’s blood to a blood bank, as mentioned above. While blood is a renewable resource and blood donation causes no long-term disability in the donor, if the donation process for solid organs such as kidneys were to present no other halachic impediments, then the selling of blood and the selling of organs are similar issues.

    Simply put, if donating an organ were to be permitted in a given situation, then there is no intrinsic reason why selling it should be forbidden. It is only external societal concerns and fear of exploiting the donor that might persuade us to forbid the selling of organs.

    Conclusion

    The consensus of Jewish legal experts is that live organ donation is a permissible and noble act, but is not an obligation. Those who are hesitant to allow live organ donation do not object to the concept, but feel that the risk may be too great to the donor. Since the risk of mortality or serious complication from live kidney donation is now so low, even those poskim who had discouraged live organ donation might consider it safe enough to be permitted.

    Regarding the sale of organs, while the thought may be distasteful (and we pray for a society that would make donating one’s organs for money unnecessary), we are a long way from such a world. If allowing payment for organs with proper safeguards would increase the number of lives saved, then Jewish law would sanction such an approach.

    Dr. Daniel Eisenberg is with the Department of Radiology at the Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, PA and an Assistant Professor of Diagnostic Imaging at Thomas Jefferson University School of Medicine.

    Dr. Eisenberg continues to lecture around North America and now writes medical ethics articles for Jlaw.com and Aish.com.

    Footnotes:

    1 Responsa Igros Moshe, Yoreh Deah II 174:4
    2 Responsa Radvaz, Volume 3:627 (1052)
    3 Responsa Igros Moshe, Yoreh Deah II 174:4
    4 See Hershler, Rabbi Moshe, “Where Organ Donors are Considered Mentally Incompetent by the Halacha,” Halacha U’Refuah, vol. 2:122-128, Regensberg Institute, 198; Zilberstein, Rabbi Yitzchak, “May Parents Give Permission to Donate the Kidney of a Child to a Sibling,” Halacha U’Refuah, vol. 4:156-57, Regensberg Institute, 1985; Halevi, Rabbi Chaim Dovid. “Donating Organs from Living Donors and Cadavers in Jewish Law,” Assia vol. 4:251-259, Machon Schlesinger, 1983.
    5 Nishmat Avraham, ibid
    6 Personal communication with Dr. Avraham Steinberg. Rav Elyashiv used the gorel of the GR”A, a traditional means of deciding complex questions. See also the Shaare Zedek Medical Center website, http://www.szmc.org.il/index.asp?id=110&top=2&page_id=985
    7 Steinberg, Dr. Avraham. Encyclopedia of Jewish Medical Ethics; pp. 1095; Feldheim: New York, 2003
    8 Responsa Minchas Yitzchak, 6:103
    9 Responsa Tzitz Eliezer, X:25:7
    10 Avraham, Dr. Avraham. Nishmat Avraham, Yoreh Deah, p. 347 (English version)
    11 The risk of mortality from live kidney donation is now estimated at .03% with a low rate of serious complications. See Surman, O.S., “Perspective: The Ethics of Partial-Liver Donation,” New England Journal of Medicine, 346:1038 (Number 14, April 4, 2002)
    12 Leviticus 19:16
    13 Responsa Yechava Da’at, III 84
    14 Avraham, Dr. Avraham. Nishmat Avraham, Yoreh Deah (Vol. 2), p. 346 (English version).
    15 Responsa Igros Moshe, Choshen Mishpat 1:103
    16 See Encyclopedia of Jewish Medical Ethics, page 1096 for a full discussion of blood and bone marrow donation.
    17 ibid.
    18 Suggested in personal communication with Dr. Avraham Steinberg
    19 The true danger of some of these professions was brought into stark relief with the events of September 11, 2001, when hundreds of firefighters and policemen perished in the Twin Towers of lower Manhattan.
    20 Finkel, Michael, “This Little Kidney Went to Market,” New York Times Magazine, May 27, 2001.
    21 Weiner, Rabbi Yaakov, Ye Shall Surely Heal, p. 155, Jerusalem Center for Research, 1995. Also see Rabbi Weiner’s extensive chapter entitled “Transplants from Live Donors.”
    22 Radcliffe-Richards, J et al, “The Case For Allowing Kidney Sales,” The Lancet, 351:9120, June 27, 1998 p. 1950-1952
    23 Rapoport, J., “Legalization of Rewarded Unrelated Living Donor Kidney Transplantation: Suggested Guidelines,” Israel Medical Association Journal, 346:1038 (2002)
    24 Avraham, Dr. Avraham. Nishmat Avraham, Even Ha’Ezer and Choshen Mishpat (Vol. 3), p. 347 (English version)
    25 Responsa Igros Moshe, Choshen Mishpat 1:103


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    84 Comments
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    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    What about forcing someone to sell one?

    PMO
    PMO
    15 years ago

    Well done research. However, I find myself asking more questions now. I know there is some kind of organ donation society that claims to be within the confines of halocho…. but I’m not sure how.

    Is there an existing live organ donor program out there for yidden? Is there somewhere that we can be tested and registered such that if a need arises we can be contacted?

    If anyone knows more information about LEGAL organ donation, I would love to find out more.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    Thank you vin for such an informative article.

    NeveAliza
    NeveAliza
    15 years ago

    1) There is far too much learning and too many halachic sources for our simple minds. In 2009 we need a Kol Koreah or a Daas Torah to tell us yea or nay. Too much thinking here for our robotic brains. (This comment is meant to be sarcastic.)
    2) Besides the issue of בכלל selling organs, another question is whether you can buy a kidney for $10,000 and sell it for $160,000. (This comment is not meant to be sarcastic.)

    David
    David
    15 years ago

    I am involved in the medical care of transplant patients in a major metropolitan medical center and see daily, the risks and benefits of organ donation and transplantaion.
    First of all, a correction. Bone marrow donation can now be accomplished through filtering the cells (similar to donation of platlets) without a surgical procedure or general anesthesia, thereby greatly lowering the risk and discomfort.
    Secondly, the arguements here are very similar to the reasons given for justifying legalization of drug use with strict controls, it will reduce crime, poor people won’t be forced to make a dishonest living, etc. Those arguements have been dismissed with cocaine, heroin, and marijuanna use and should likewise be dismissed with organ transplants.
    The only way to equalize treatment across all social and economic boundaries is to allocate organs to those who need them most. The only way to jump to the head of the line is to have a family member or friend agree to donate altruistically with the only compensation being for medical expenses and time missed from work for the procedure and a period of recuperation.
    Imagine if compensation were allowed. Many poor people, desperate in these economic times, would bid low for the right to donate. Not only would they suffer the risks and potential complications, but the financial compensation at the end may not be enough to pay for their needs if down the road they develop kidney disease and end up requiring dialysis or a transplant themselves. The whole idea which is now looked upon as a high, morally admirable, and an act of love and caring would degenerate to a cold for profit endeavor. Let’s keep the gift of life as it should be, a gift, not a business transaction or worse.

    shmuel
    shmuel
    15 years ago

    How about Naval birshus hatorah?

    concerned
    concerned
    15 years ago

    While I haven’t had a chance to digest this article, I have to worry that some people will take this as a heter to allow people to do what was done in this scandal. To say it cost so much because of all the peopel who have to be “schmeered” gives a flavor to the enterprise of paying needy people to sell their organs to benefit rich people. To hide under the gloss of this being a mitzva makes me nauseous.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    #5 David. If you’d be desperate for you life in need of an organ, and the only way you could get one in time would be to buy one, you’d think a little differently.

    ShatzMatz
    ShatzMatz
    15 years ago

    The reason why a market for selling kidneys is even even exists is because there is a lack of suffecient voluntary donors in the community. That situation is about to change. There are several new organizations (the most prominent being ‘Renewal’) are going to bring awareness to this issue with the backing of leading gedolim. I am confident that after being educated on the importance of the issue and of the minimal risk to the donor that klal yisroel will overwhelm the donor pool thereby negating the whole issue of selling kidneys. Perhaps it is one good thing that will come out of the current tragedy.

    David
    David
    15 years ago

    If I couldn’t find a friend or family member who was a match, I’d join the waitng pool just like anyone else. I’d rather die than take advantage of a poor person and force him to undergo a risky procedure that he wouldn’t otherwise just so I could live. And I mean that with all sincerity. Does that make me a better person or Jew than you? I don’t know. But at least I’d be able to sleep at nights.

    whatever
    whatever
    15 years ago

    SELLING organs in the U.S. is illegal, so regardless, that is OUT of the question. Giving up an organ shortens that individuals life span, and they are subject to other health conditions.

    e. grossmann
    e. grossmann
    15 years ago

    Well there is a simple means of making more organs available: default consent instead of default refusal to take organs…

    So if supplying organs is so important to you, make a campaign that everyone should be considered a donor unless they explicitely stated otherwise.

    This leads to a donor rate of over 90%, while the opposite system (donation only with explicit whish of the donor) never grows over 30%.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    Any surgery that requires general anesthesia and invades the body to that extent, particularly the abdominal cavity, poses a significant risk. Furthermore, how can anyone predict that the donor will live a “normal” life afterwards? Anything can happen to that existing kidney and in the case of a woman, should she have to rely on less than one wholly functioning one, she would be unable to bear children. Hashem is the great designer and the giver and taker of life. He didn’t make spare parts. I’m sorry if that flies in the face of all the academic arguments of the poskim. Sometimes, all that’s necessary is common sense and humility in the face of clear evidence of Hashem’s handiwork.
    I would ask Chocham Ovadia, people die of all sorts of diseases everyday for which we can do nothing but stand by. According to your reasoning, is that not also shedding blood?

    David
    David
    15 years ago

    I’ve read the Wall Street Editorial. Regarding compensation, I might agree with providing fumeral expenses, or tax credits or a generous contribution to a charity of their choice. But I am still against direct compensation, even through a third party. Once the genie is let out of the bottle, the entire system will degenerate to a profit making affair, and people will be hurt, injured or worse even die from a procedure that they should not have undertaken, and would not had they not been so desperate for financial recompense.

    Robert
    Robert
    15 years ago

    perhaps it is time for the religious jewish community to band together and start a legal organization to promote altruistic kidney donations that conform with halacha and with appropriate state and fereral laws..financial issues would be transparent and partnerships with non jewish groups can flourish to make kidneys available to even more people.. this even might be a sanctification of God’s name and place the religious jewish community in a positive light…

    EMS
    EMS
    15 years ago

    The article is good, but off the mark.. The issue in the case last week is not whether it is permissible for a Jew to donate or sell his organs. The issue is whether it is permissible for a Jew to be the recipient of organ donations or sales, when the donor may no longer wish to donate, and also whether a Jew is allowed to force a non Jew to give up an organ when the recipient Jew will otherwise probably die without it.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    I have a few friends and neighbors that donated a kidney to other people with kidney failure. All of them are BH healthy, and happy to save another persons life with such a meaningful charity, literally giving away “a piece of themselves” to save a human life.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    How many people are given the death penalty each year in the US? Why aren’t those who are physically healthy given an execution by harvesting of vital organs? At the very least the condemned should be given a choice of the method of execution, and execution via organ harvesting should be one of the options. Someone who is on death row for murder should at least be given the opportunity to save lives via his demise.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    To #6

    It was reported here on VIN that they actually WERE forced to sell the organs at gunpoint, and told that they wouldn’t be able to return to their home country unless they complied.

    Avrohom Abba
    Avrohom Abba
    15 years ago

    Did I missit? I think no one here, not in the article and not in the responses, addressed the big question of whether o9r not it is pewrmissible to donate your organs after death. In other words, after death, they remove your vital organs where can still be used for up to many or even days after. What about that kind of donating? Is that allowed?

    Also, yes, there is an organization which I just sent a check to, and they deal with organ donations and they say they are Orthodox. here is their address…….
    http://www.hod.org or their phone number is, 212-213-5087.
    The name is HOD, Halachic OrganDonor.

    liberal Democrat
    liberal Democrat
    15 years ago

    the bottom line we liberals are anti life, pro death. Its is permissible for a mother to kill her own child (late, mid, or early term abortion) but it is forbidden to help save someone who needs a kidney.

    טאטע העלפן אונז שוין
    טאטע העלפן אונז שוין
    15 years ago

    רבונו של עולם יש הרבה ישראלים הצריכים כוליא חדש – אנחנו מיום שניתנה תורה כלל ישראל עושין רק רצונך ולמה כשאנחנו שואלים ממך דבר מה שאתה כתבת בתורה ורפא ירפא למה תסתיר פניך למה יאמר הגויים איה אלקיך, שלח לנו מלך המשיח כי כבר אין לנו עוד כח, אפילו רגע אחת לסבול עול הגלות, רבונו של עולם למה לנו כל הצרות – כלל ישראל מלא חסדים טובים יש לנו הצלה יש לנו חברים יש לנו הרבה גמחים שכולם אהובים אנחנו עושים חסד אין לשער אנו עושים מצוותיו בחשכת הגלות אונז האבן שוין געהאט א היטלער ווי פול נאך טאטע העלפן אונז שוין ארויס פון דעם גלות – ויה”ר שנת תשס”ט ר”ת תהא שנת סימן טוב
    אמן

    mr
    mr
    15 years ago

    #68 what beautiful words

    Umanna
    Umanna
    15 years ago

    From the indictment, it does not appear that Rosenbaum committed a crime.

    Below is 42 U.S.C. § 274e, the law that Rosenbaum is accused of violating. The statute allows compensation to the donor for “expenses of travel, housing, and lost wages incurred by the donor of a human organ in connection with the donation of the organ.” 42 U.S.C.A. § 274e(c)(2).

    Rosenbaum in paragraph 7 of the indictment correctly states, “Let me explain to you one thing. It’s illegal to buy or sell organs. . . . So you cannot buy it. What you do is, you’re giving a compensation for the time . . . whatever–-he’s not working. . . .” It appears that the buyer is not paying Rosenbaum for the kidney, but for the service of locating a willing donor.

    To the extent that Rosenbaum is paying the donor, it would be a crime only if the dollar amount exceeds the donor’s “lost wages.” 42 U.S.C.A. § 274e(c)(2). But since Rosenbaum never indicates how much the donor would get paid, there is no way to prove that he committed a crime.

    § 274e. Prohibition of organ purchases

    (a) Prohibition

    It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly acquire, receive, or otherwise transfer any human organ for valuable consideration for use in human transplantation if the transfer affects interstate commerce. The preceding sentence does not apply with respect to human organ paired donation.

    (b) Penalties

    Any person who violates subsection (a) of this section shall be fined not more than $50,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

    (c) Definitions

    For purposes of subsection (a) of this section:

    (1) The term “human organ” means the human (including fetal) kidney, liver, heart, lung, pancreas, bone marrow, cornea, eye, bone, and skin or any subpart thereof and any other human organ (or any subpart thereof, including that derived from a fetus) specified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services by regulation.

    (2) The term “valuable consideration” does not include the reasonable payments associated with the removal, transportation, implantation, processing, preservation, quality control, and storage of a human organ or the expenses of travel, housing, and lost wages incurred by the donor of a human organ in connection with the donation of the organ.

    (3) The term “interstate commerce” has the meaning prescribed for it by section 321(b) of Title 21.

    Moving to the left
    Moving to the left
    15 years ago

    Too much shaklah v’tariah here as usual. Use your own common sense. What this frummer yid did was disgusting and certainly not a chessed.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    what about post-mortem donation? can a person opt to donate his heart, lings, liver ect…once he is deceased?

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    A truly excellent and balanced article. If only this author would take on the monumental task of analyzing the neo-Nazi euthanasia philosophy of Herr Doktor Ezekiel Emanuel and the leftist brownshirts touting the Obamacare obamination..

    drtommy123456
    drtommy123456
    9 years ago

    Attention,
    Welcome to irrua specialist special hospital,
    Do you want to buy or sell your kidney?, Are you seeking for an opportunity to sell your kidney for money due to financial break down and you don’t know what to do, then contact us today and we shall offer you good amount of money for your Kidney we specialize for top class medical treatment like Heart Surgery, Cancer Care, Spinal fusion surgery , sleeve mastectomy surgery , and other major surgeries. contact us now via: irruaspecialistspecialhospital gmail.com with the follow details below,

    name:
    country:
    phone number:

    Good luck to you.

    Best Regard,
    Dr Tommy.

    Doctor_AJ_Rajput
    Doctor_AJ_Rajput
    7 years ago

    Looking for an opportunity to sell your kidney for money due to financial break down and we shall offer you $195,000.00 USD for your Kidney. My name is Doctor Doctor A.J. Rajput, i am a Nephrology in India Surgical Hospital. Our hospital is specialized in Kidney Surgery/transplant and other organ treatment, we also deal with buying and transplantation of kidneys with a living and healthy donor. We are located in India. If you are interested in selling your kidney please don’t hesitate to contact us.

    contact us via : Email:
    dir.ashok.j.raj001 gmail.com

    Best Regard
    Doctor A.J. Rajput