W6- Transplant tourism Cohen

Question 1

Transplant Tourism

Answer 1

travel abroad for the purpose of buying organs for transplantation

• form of mutually beneficial exploitation
• from the ex ante (“beforehand”) perspective, however, a major problem for the ex post perspective

Question 2

Medical tourism

Answer 2

residents of one country travelling to another country for medical treatment

Question 3

Seller Regret

Answer 3

A sense of remorse or dissatisfaction in relation to a specific transaction – if sellers had a second chance they wouldn’t have gone through it

Question 4

The myth of the “sleeping kidney”

Answer 4

a persuasive tactic to sell kidneys, whereby the selling of a kidney is presented as a win-win situation because while removing one of their kidneys the transplant surgeon “awakens” the other through medication and the seller is portrayed as living perfectly well.

Question 5

Bounded rationality

Answer 5

the notion that in decision making, rationality of individuals is limited by the information they have, the cognitive limitations of their minds, and the finite amount of time they have to make decisions

Question 6

The meantime problem:

Answer 6

• If we ban the market, then everyone loses
• We make A worse off by making it illegal for her to pursue such opportunities for income, upon which her wellbeing and that of her family may depend
• Long term relief does not help those currently dying on the waiting lists

Question 7

Cohen arguments

Answer 7

• strong argument to justify prohibiting these practices that relates to deficits in information provided to sellers and their bounded rationality
• Ultimately argues for increasing home country attempts to deter transplant tourism.

Question 8

Problems with sellers

Answer 8

• aren’t getting what they’re promised
• have long term health harms that limits their potential of getting employment
• don’t know what they’re getting themselves into

Question 9

Bounded Rationality

Answer 9

(1) often sellers are misinformed/deceived
(2) Sellers are less than competent due to “bounded rationality”, cognitive biases
(3) 60-85% of sellers regret their decision, and would not do it again if given a second chance
- Seller regret, based on informational deficits and bounded rationality, is the strongest argument for legal intervention (i.e. prohibition)
- C: (1, 2, 3) is enough to ban TT

Question 10

Cohen ban transplant tourism

Answer 10

Regulations;

1. Want to end international organ sales
2. Want to root out the bad forms of the practice along
3. Want to introduce regulated markets

Question 11

BOP

Answer 11

Cohen believes BOP is on those who want to allow it

Question 12

Cohen multimodal strategy

Answer 12

1. Destination country enforcement- ban organ sales
2. Professional self-policing and international documents
3. Home country measures (e.g. restrictions on insurance coverage + extraterritorial criminalization)
4. Improve supply + allocation of organs locally

Question 13

The hypocrisy Argument

Answer 13

• We should be wary of banning TT unless we are committed to implementing effective poverty relief and redistributing wealth and power that makes these individuals just as well off without selling their kidneys

Question 14

Cohen vs hypocrisy argument

Answer 14

neighbours find themselves worse off after selling their kidneys and deeply regret what they have done. Sometimes regulatory prohibitions to prohibitions to protect the many will burden the few

Question 15

Objections to cohen

Answer 15

• Regulatory prohibitions can harm participants more
• Object to hyperactive paternalism
• Object to insurance approach – may offload professional responsibilities of doctors onto insurers

Question 16

Rebuttal of objections

Answer 16

• Enforcing a regulatory solution means that hardships can be alleviated, from both the seller and the receiver side
• Protects sellers and receivers