What is the economist s solution to the shortage of human organs for transplants? Sometimes governments go beyond simply reducing the quantity produced and outlaw market transactions entirely. Each year, thousands of Americans die waiting for replacement kidneys, hearts, livers, pancreases, and lungs. In the last decade, improvements in the effectiveness of organ transplants have increased the demand for used human organs. Because the supply hasn’t increased along with demand, there are shortages of transplantable organs. In a normal market, the price would rise to eliminate the shortage, but because it is illegal to buy and sell human organs, there is no pricing mechanism to close the gap between the quantity supplied and the quantity demanded. The conventional approach to the organ shortage is to appeal to people s generosity, urging them to commit their organs to the transplant program. The failure of this approach led Nobel-winning economist Gary Becker to suggest monetary incentives for organ donors. Under his proposal, the federal government would pay donors and their survivors for the organs they donate and would distribute the organs to hospitals for transplanting. This proposal raises all sorts of ethical questions and has not been embraced by many policymakers or health experts.