Kidneys for sale | The Gray Area

Is it ever okay to put a price on a kidney? Why is it illegal to sell an organ, but perfectly legal to sell blood plasma? This episode explores the world of “repugnant transactions”— the markets we find morally offensive — and asks why we ban certain markets as “gross” or “unethical” while ignoring others that might cause more harm.

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In this episode of The Gray Area, host Bryan Walsh sits down with Nobel laureate Alvin Roth, who wrote the recent book Moral Economics, to discuss how markets are the key to understanding our most deeply held social values. They break down why society chooses to ban certain transactions, how those choices affect real lives, and whether we can use “market design” to save people without violating our ethical standards.

Host: Bryan Walsh, Vox Editorial Director
Guest: Alvin Roth, Professor of Economics at Stanford University and author of Moral Economics: From Prostitution to Organ Sales, What Controversial Transactions Reveal About How Markets Work.

00:00 Intro
02:57 What is a ‘repugnant transaction?’
08:19 America’s kidney shortage
12:05 Iran’s kidney market
30:39 Kidney transplantation vs dialysis
24:22 The ethics of paying for kidneys
32:16 Other ‘repugnant transactions’

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Written by Vox