The Real Kidney Scandal

"Even by New Jersey's standards, Thursday's roundup of three mayors, five rabbis and 36 others on charges of money laundering and public corruption was big. But what put this FBI dragnet head and shoulders above the rest are the charges of trafficking in human body parts. ... The early responses to the New Jersey Scandal leave me dismayed, though not surprised. 'We really have to crack down,' the co-director of the Joint Council of Europe/United Nations study on Trafficking in Organs and Body Parts told MSNBC. That strategy is doomed, or course. It ignores the time-tested fact that efforts to stamp out underground markets either drive corruption further underground or causes it to flourish elsewhere. ... The best way to make that happen is to give legitimate incentives to people who might be willing to donate. ... More than 80,000 Americans now wait for a kidney, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. Thirteen of them die daily; the rest languish for years on dialysis. Thge number of donors last year was lower than in 2005, despite decades of work to encourage people to sign donor cards and donate to loved ones. ... What [Levy] Rosenbaum is accused of doing is indeed against the law, and if he is found guilty he will be held accountable. But his alleged actions were a symptom of a deeper problem: the dire organ shortage", my emphasis, Sally Satel at the WSJ, 27 July 2009, link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204886304574307932274150934.html.

Change the law! The same "morality" that gave us prohibition and the Harrison Act, gives us the "kidney shortage", people who want to control others with respect to what in my judgment is not their concern. That the FBI and DOJ had time for this case shows their misplaced enforcement efforts. 13 Americans die daily and Congress won't change the law. Congress consists of murderers. I would like to see Rosenbaum acquittted. That might encourage the FBI and DOJ to go after bigger game: Wall Street. I last commented on the kidney scandal on 15 January 2008, link: http://skepticaltexascpa.blogspot.com/2008/01/man-is-presumed.html.