I was going to write a post about the Institute for Justice’s important recent victory in the bone marrow case. However, I see that co-blogger Eugene Volokh has beaten me to the punch, and said most of what I would have wanted to say.
I would add only that the sale of organs and medically necessary body parts (including bone marrow) can save many lives. I answered some of the standard objections to organ markets here and here.
In some ways, bone marrow markets are even more defensible than organ markets. Unlike transplanted organs, transplanted bone marrow grows back, and the donor avoids even the very modest long-term health risks that kidney donors undertake.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST WATCH: I have had the privilege of working with IJ on a number of other cases, but had no involvement in this one.