Women Sell Their Eggs, So Why Not a Kidney?

While most of us find it revolting to pay for an organ, we readily accept allowing women to sell their eggs to an infertile couple. While it's not illegal for women in the United States to get payments for egg donations (it is in Europe), the American Society for Reproductive Medicine has established ethical guidelines for egg donor compensation—a cap of $10,000 per cycle—which most fertility clinics follow. "I'm on the fence, I have to say. I'm really torn about this," says Jonathan Moreno, a professor of bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. "People are understandably uncomfortable and uncertain about selling kidneys, but there really is a shortage." He says if there were a nonexploitative way of doing this, he'd like to see it tried within the framework of a research study. (Most shocking were allegations that poor donors were forced to give up their kidneys for $10,000, while the middlemen received $150,000.) US News