I debated with myself about posting this, because the copy cat concern kind of sounds like FUD when I read it back to myself. But then again, I just read a story about a kid selling one of his organs for an Apple product, which sure sounds like a sensationalist what if scenario. It's always a little depressing when what sounds like FUD is perfectly true.

*edited many times to get the wording better.

The situation in Foxconn got so bad last year was partly because at first Foxconn compensated the suicide victims' relatives rather substantial amount of money, then copycat jumpers became epidemic.

The kid sold his kidney for $3000, a MacBook Pro 17" can easily command $3000. That's dangerously close to enough incentive.

I struggle to see a great incentive with I put $3k on a scale vs health issues, a major surgery, etc. I like to think kids are generally smarter than this one was.

I'm Chinese, some of us are getting richer by the day，some of us are obscenely wealthy, most of us are still poor, and then there are young kids in China willing to jump off a roof so that their family will get some $100.000 as compensate.

It actually makes me think that the iPad 2 part of the story may be entirely fictional: perhaps the kid made it up in order to seek publicity and attention.

But some will, and it would be tragic.

Also internet cafe and school both provide web access.

Like what? Kids need a parent's permission to donate their kidney? I don't think you'll get much argument about that.

Also, keep in mind that someone's life was saved here. Someone about whom we can't make very many assumptions based on what we know.

That's the catch with the whole organ selling debate: however horrifying you find the seller's story, you have to compare it with the buyer's, or rather the would-be buyers who die on the waiting list.

This are a lot of ethical, economical, and operational questions related to this. Doesn't mean that it should be banned, though.

If the market was free he would get paid more, all the risks associated with getting caught, limited access to information and extra barriers to entry push up what percent the "transplant agents" and reduce what the donor gets.

Not to mention the dead weight loss that we would get after regulating when there's people willing to sell and people willing to purchase.

And I don't see why Chinese people having a different indifference curve aka consumption preferences than Americans or some other country is a bad thing. If that's what makes them happy let them spend their money the way they want to. Note that people spending a big portion of salary on phones, designer clothes etc. is not exclusive to China, rich Asian countries like HK, Japan, Taiwan, Korea and few more have the same thing. Simply a different culture.

Yeah, but weigh up the chances of that (most people don't get kidney failure in their life) versus the extra opportunities that you get from the money. If you're dirt poor in China, $3400 might be just what you need to get yourself started in life and catapult yourself up into the middle class.

Buying an iPad still seems like dubious value, but... hopefully he did something better with the rest of it. And I guess if you don't have any other computer then an iPad just might be worth 20% of one of your kidneys if you can use it to educate yourself or start a business.

But if I were dirt poor in China, and I really did think that $3400 would be enough to give me the kick start to lift myself permanently out of poverty, I'd do it.

I suppose the real problem is that there's some minimum rational price for which it's sensible to sell a kidney... and a bunch of irrational people who are willing to sell their kidneys for less than that. So none of the rational people will ever get a look in, and a legalised kidney trade would only lead to misery rather than good deals.

This is still a terrible idea.

For various reasons (religion, traditions, mistrust of hospitals) China has virtually no willing organ donors. The numbers get made up from executed prisoners, or even less legitimate sources.

The culture of consumption is alive and well.

I think you're missing the horror here.