The concluding chapter of Dr. Sigrid Fry-Revere's recently published book The Kidney Sellers is entitled "Conclusion: Can the U.S. Organ Shortage Be Solved?".  In this portion of the work the author provides recommendations to solve the U.S. kidney shortage, based on her experience investigating the Iranian compensated living kidney donor system.  Finally the hungry LIBERTARIAN BIOETHICS BLOGger got to eat the meat of the matter.

The highlights of the conclusion include the following: the recognition that it is impossible to solve the U.S. kidney shortage via increased cadaver organs or tweaks of the current system, analysis revealing that the current U.S. system disadvantages vulnerable populations (poor, minorities, disabled), ideas to reform the Iranian compensated living kidney donor system, and a utilitarian argument for U.S. legislation allowing experimentation with a limited compensated living kidney donor system.  The lowlight of the conclusion (and the rest of the book frankly) is the statist orientation of the author's recommendations with no consideration at all (and even implicit criticism of) the concept of a genuine free market in organs.

Acknowledgment and Notes sections follow the concluding chapter.    

The tenth chapter of Dr. Sigrid Fry-Revere's recently published book The Kidney Sellers is entitled "Making My Way Home."  This section of the work details the author's return to the United States.  This chapter precedes the conclusion of the book.

The highlights of this chapter include the following: souvenir shopping in Tehran, the official garb of the West, an anticlimactic trip through American State customs, the death of a friend, and a life tragedy interrupts a kidney donation.  The lowlight of the chapter - a flaw found throughout the book - is the author's persistent belief that Western States have markedly superior human rights records when compared to the Iranian State.  

At the end of this chapter Dr. Fry-Revere hints that she saved her policy recommendations for the concluding chapter, the next and final chapter of her outstanding new book. 

The ninth chapter of Dr. Sigrid Fry-Revere's recently published book The Kidney Sellers is entitled "Too Poor to Pay".  This book section documents the author's experiences in Kermanshah, an agricultural city in western Iran approximately 100 miles from the Iran-Iraq border.  Kermanshah is not a city I shall be visiting anytime soon.

The highlights of this chapter include the following: an interesting Iranian law banning vehicles with sunroofs, a Naples leprosy anecdote, a less-than-fun teenage party, the limitations of Dr. Zargooshi's research (the primary Iranian physician critic of the compensated organ donation system), the bizarre kidney procurement exam at Imam Reza Hospital, the lack of medical resources in Kermanshah, an interview with a rare insightful Iranian (apparently as rare as an insightful American), an Iranian holy day, an interview with an Iranian donor worried about her own "greed", and the valiant Kermanshah Anjoman.

The LIBERTARIAN BIOETHICS BLOGger was perturbed by two sections of chapter 9, however.  In the "A Limited Perspective" subsection of the chapter, in which Dr. Zargooshi's research is critiqued, Dr. Fry-Revere basically agrees with his research but excuses his negative findings by stating that his research "interviews were carried out in the early 1990s when the Iranian government's regulation of compensated-kidney donation was in its infancy." Thus, she basically claims that Dr. Zargooshi's research reported a market failure phenomena that has since resolved via increased Iranian State regulation.  Uh, I don't think so.  An alternative theory that does not posit market failure is that Dr. Zargooshi's research is fatally flawed, which, based on the brief info the author provides about his research and conclusions, is much more likely to be true than the alleged market failure.  

The second lowlight of the chapter is the author's negative reaction to the standard paraphernalia of an Iranian holy day in the "Escape to Mt. Kooh-e-Sefid" subsection of the chapter.  "Most people, including our driver and Dr. Bastani, took it all in stride, but for a Westerner like myself, who equates flags at half staff with death and black flags with anarchy, the sight was unsettling."  Unsettling?  A Westerner like myself?  All true libertarians, Western or Eastern or Northern or Southern, are anarchists, dammit!  You're killing me, Sigrid.  I so want to believe you are a libertarian, but then you say such … silly … things. 

LIBERTARIAN BIOETHICS BLOGger homework: Review Dr. Zargooshi's published articles concerning the Iranian compensated-kidney donation system.

The eighth chapter of Dr. Sigrid Fry-Revere's recently published book The Kidney Sellers is entitled "Organs for Opium". This book section chronicles the author's experiences in Tabriz, Iran.  I think I now know the names of more Iranian cities than American cities.  The highlights of this shorter chapter include the following: the self-concept of the inhabitants of Tabriz, the extensive Azerbaijani influence in Tabriz, the author's Western travel lifestyle wants, the practice of daughter "gifting", the primary motivating force for Iranian kidney donors, the unknown percentage of addicted Iranian kidney donors, cultural culinary mishaps, child brides, the real reason why Iran simultaneously has eliminated its kidney shortage but has fewer kidney transplants per capita than the U.S., the author's interesting Christmas traditions, and archeological treasures.  The LIBERTARIAN BIOETHICS BLOGger identified no lowlights in this chapter.