The Case Against a Free Market for Human Organs in the Philippines

• Main Author: Boongaling, John Ian K.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2015
• Subjects: free market for human organs; argument from personal autonomy; argument from economic efficiency; the Filipino concept of justice; social justice
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/apssr/vol15/iss1/5; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/apssr/article/1044/viewcontent/4_Boongaling_20061615.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

The paper looks into the proposal of creating a public policy or enacting a law which allows for a free market for human organs, specifically kidneys, in the Philippine context. The paper identifies two of the most important arguments that are used by defenders of the free market proposal for human organs: the argument from personal autonomy and the argument from economic efficiency. Using the most recent data on the Philippine kidney selling experience, social justice, and Diokno’s Filipino concept of justice, the paper shows that these arguments are defective and thus cannot ground the free market proposal for human organs in the Philippines.